Heuristic Evidence
by Deadeye1
Summary: When Baymax suffers a near-fatal systems failure, an indisposed Hiro needs help putting him back together. When putting the robot back together brings up old memories, Gogo finds that engineering precision equipment is nowhere near as difficult as fixing a broken heart.
1. Owner of a Lonely Heart

Note: Made some content changes to increase emotional tension and flow. There will be a second chapter.

ooooo

11:23 PM

Port of San Fransokyo – Warehouse District

The armor piercing rocket exploded, erupting in a shockwave that threw half the team to the ground like rag dolls, filling the air with flames and red hot shrapnel. Despite the deafening noise, they could hear the wretched screech of metal and snap of carbon fiber plates followed by the squeal of scrambled electronics.

"Oh n….zzzzrt."

With a pathetic, whimpering sputter of static, the robot fell; the cherry red armor disgorging a rapidly burning deflated balloon and a twisted mechanical skeleton.

"_Baymax!_"

Hiro Yamada's panicked shout snapped the team out of stunned silence as the leering, oversized glasses-wearing pink cat head of the San Fransoyko anarchist Professor Genki let loose a shrill, cackling laugh, tossing aside the M72 Light Anti-Armor Weapon like empty soda can.

"Murder time, fun time!" Up until now, Genki's voice had been unnervingly playful. Having drawn first blood with Baymax, the cat monster's gleeful shout was cold and bloodcurdling. The air was immediately filled with a flurry of fuzzy octopus plushes as the twisted mascot hurled the incendiary toys into the air towards Hiro's charge at the downed health care companion.

As always, Gogo was the first to react. "Hardballs, now!" Honey Lemon nodded once, her normally cheerful features grim but lit strangely by the pink spheres she pressed into the speedster's hands as she darted by.

"Cover me!" The yellow blur shot forward in an eyeblink as the rest of the team leapt into action against the small army of animatronic animals in Genki's twisted Ethical Reality Climax set.

The cat-in-a-lab-coat mascot suit was actually high tech battle armor that rivalled anything Big Hero 6 had to offer. The man inside? If there was one, he had long since succumbed to what Fred described as a "complete looney rooney kookypants breakdown". This explained why the wobbly headed monster had been kidnapping people and running through his televised deathtraps filled with homicidal Freddy Fazbear Pizza mascots.

The pink wall of fast-drying foam that gave the chemballs their distinctive name shot from the ground like a mythical beanstalk, blocking the fiery plush grenades from their small purple target as Gogo's wheels ground to a stop. The sparks kicked up, lighting her helmeted face and her expression of concern.

"Idiot! You know better than to…!" Gogo's voice was cut off by the rattling detonation of a Genki-gas grenade tossed a few hundred meters away at Fredzilla's flaming maw. Although not much taller than Hiro, she instinctively covered him, presenting all four wheels as shields to provide as much protection as she could. Robot bear bits battered her wheels as she hunkered down. "Baymax! Is he..?"

Gogo's face was obscured by her helmet's reflection of the battle around her, but it was blank. Emotions were difficult for her to show, but easy to understand. She knew Hiro couldn't lose Baymax. Not now, not only a year after the accident, and definitely not at the hands of some random guy in a robot cat suit with authority issues.

"Please, please, please, please…"

Hiro's voice was tiny, barely using any breath as he stabbed at the ruined Baymax's expansion slot deployer. While they had not fared too poorly against Genki, the shock of Baymax's explosion was definitely a morale killer. She was strong, jaded, and prepared to help Hiro tough out his loss in the field if she had to. Hiro falling into a catatonic stupor would be crushing. Grieving could come later. Gogo's lips pressed into a hard line.

The look on his face was like a beacon as he lifted his head to meet Gogo's gaze.

She let out a relieved sigh, fogging her helmet slightly. His broad smile reminded her of a kid that got the last toy at the toy store as he tucked the green card into his wrist pocket.

"He's okay!" The young inventor's voice crowed over the commlink in his suit to the rest of the team, a rallying cry.

"Great! Now how about helping the rest of us survive!?" Wasabi shouted, his plasma blades deflecting Professor Genki's rapid-fire Shining Destructo Finger attacks. The cat monster's finger poke stabs drove the big man back with each deadly jab.

Gogo smirked at Hiro as she straightened up, grabbing the boy into a piggyback ride. Her gum snapped. "C'mon, knucklehead. Let's go push in that cat's litter."

Back into the fray they rode, Fredzilla's righteous flames drying the premature tears on Hiro's face as they shot past to light Honey Lemon's concussion bombs, knocking Professor Genki back ears over tail.

Things were looking up.

oo00oo

12:13AM

Port of San Fransokyo - Professor Genki's Ethical Reality Climax Studio

Professor Genki turned out to be an elaborate robot. After Fred had burned off the furry exterior, Honey had scrambled its brain with magnetic flakes and Wasabi had (accidentally) opened it up from crotch to sternum, Hiro had picked through it to find that it was being controlled remotely. Luckily, its hold on the animatronic pizza mascot militia had died the moment Gogo smashed her foot into the Genkibot's processor cavity.

"I got no strings to hold me down…" Fred had muttered in a creepy, singsong voice as the rattletrap army fell to the floor.

Wasabi slapped him on the back of the head.

Honey's face immediately took on a worried look as she glanced back at the miserable wreck that was Baymax. "Hiro," the name rolled off her tongue, "Sweetie, are you sure he's okay?"

"Yeah," smiled the prodigy weakly, holding up the memory card. "He's fine. Just gonna have to fix him ASAP."

Of course it had been Wasabi that remembered scheduling. "Aren't you going with your Aunt Cass to Chicago soon? We're gonna need Baymax right away. The real Professor Genki is probably still out there."

"Hmm."

The boy genius' face scrunched in contemplation, hand covering his mouth for a moment in thought. Eyes scanned the concerned, tired, dirty, but ultimately relieved look on his friend's faces as the sounds of police sirens filled the air.

Gogo's gum popped.

"I'll think of something," said Hiro.

oo00oo

3:58AM

Gogo's Apartment

The fight with Professor Genki had been physically draining. It had been emotionally taxing too, what with Baymax's accident. She'd be loath to admit either of those things. Gogo had crashed out the moment her head hit the pillow at the studio she had rented out on her meager messenger salary.

Three hours later, her doorbell was going off, the sound a pneumatic drill passing through her ear canal.

She lurched to her feet, rubbing her eyes. They burned with fatigue. Gogo wiped drool from her face back of her hand and coughed up a gob of something into a tissue. Allergies. Ugh. Bare feet padded over to the door, grabbing a wrench along the way because you could never be too careful. She turned the knob and pushed the door open with her shoulder, ready to take off her unwanted visitor's head if necessary.

Hiro's beaming face stared up at her again. Gogo grunted, dropping the wrench on the stand by the door. She looked down at the box of Baymax in the rusty old wagon behind the prodigy. The blank mask of her face shifted into a frown.

Fingers absently popped a fresh piece of gum into her mouth. She chewed five times. Slow, deliberate chews. A bubble inflated, obscuring part of her face as her gaze flicked to Hiro. The coconut-hair doormat under her bare feet made her itch. The chilly wet San Fansokyo air blew through her thin, rumpled t-shirt and ratty old shorts. It was worse because she lived on the second floor of an older building – cool breezes turned into terrible bone chilling winds in the span of a few feet.

She heard her alarm clock tick over another hour. It was 4:00AM. Her eyes narrowed at Hiro, emphasizing their dark circles.

"Please?"

The bubble popped.

"Puh-leeeze?"

Big doe eyes pled up at the engineering student, but found no purchase in the inscrutable young woman's tired stare. She jerked her thumb at herself. "Mechanical engineering. Industrial design."

Her finger pointed almost accusatorily at Hiro. "Robotics and software engineering."

The thumb jerked back. "Immensely tired. Why are you even out at this hour?" Arms folded as she shifted her weight to one leg.

"It was the only time I could sneak out of the house. Look, all I'm asking is that you help machine and assemble some of Baymax's parts while I'm out of town this week." The boy raised his hands over his head, pressing them together as if to pray for forgiveness. "Besides, didn't you help Tadashi with some of his design specs?"

Tadashi. The name neutralized the frown on her face. Eyes closed, and she rubbed her temple with her hand as she motioned with her head for Hiro to come in. "Fine. Watch your step. Place's a mess."

Gogo Tomago was many things. Smart. Strong. Fearless. Motivational. Loyal. But tidy? Hiro gingerly stepped away from picked-clean Chinese food containers and around the plastic housing of a dozen incomplete prototypes fabricated for Gogo's school projects. The air in her place was stale, and smelled of old food and motor oil.

"You'd think with all your design stuff, you could at least fabricate up a broom. Wow. That's something I never thought I'd say to anyone else." The statement caught a glare. He winced.

The décor didn't help, either. Girly Gogo was not. Lamps were salvaged from junkyards or were mechanic's droplights hung from the ceiling. Her coffee table was a metal plate welded to a defunct motorcycle engine block – a joke gift from Fred during his "prop comedy" phase when he found out that Gogo was an "industrial design" major. Standing out from the mess was her highly sophisticated material fabrication workbench, where she was working on her midterm project of a self-balancing, unbreakable sports bottle.

"Anyway. Thanks, Gogo, I…"

The woman gave a sharp, short hiss, interrupting the boy. "Wagon there," she instructed, which sounded more like a demand. The boy obediently trundled over to the free space next to some athletic training equipment and weights. "Look. I know you're busy and I'm really sorry to put this on you, so I really apprec…"

Hiro's face turned red as Gogo absentmindedly kicked off her shorts to change into a pair of rumpled jeans salvaged from the apartment floor. She didn't say anything if she noticed – she probably didn't care. Modesty took time. He was like a dumb baby brother anyway.

Arms slipped into the sleeves of a heavy jacket. "Whatever. I'll look at it tomorrow. Let's get you home."

"I can get home by myself," Hiro groused, his embarrassment evaporating as he folded his arms with an indignant look on his face. "I'm not a kid, Gogo. I'm practically your team leader."

"Kid," Gogo said pointedly, "Your idea of a cocktail still involves pieces of fruit and you do a happy dance when someone buys you candy. Until both those things change, I am the boss of you in all matters that don't involve supervillains. "

Her tone was acid, although the spite in her words didn't reach her tired eyes. "C'mon, stupid, before Cass grounds you until you're thirty." A chilled hand grabbed the boy by the collar, tugging him towards the door.

Hiro smirked. "You sound just like Tadashi sometimes."

She peered at Hiro from the corner of her eye. Her gum popped.

oo00oo

9:06AM

Gogo's Apartment

Her eye opened and was immediately assaulted by the searing glow of the big 9:06AM on her alarm clock. Some things were perfectly efficient no matter how futuristic the rest of the world got, and one of those things was the garish, ugly clock radio from the ancient 1980's that had come with the room.

Her eye closed. Thank goodness she remembered to turn off the alarm when she came back home from dropping off Hiro. He had nodded off during the trip despite her dizzying bike speeds. He was used to it now, darting in and out of traffic. Thankfully, the road had been relatively clear at 4:00AM, and they had managed to sneak him back into bed before Cass was any the wiser.

Gogo had decided to reward herself by sleeping in. She rolled over, pulling the covers up so that only the top of her head peeked out to block out the light of the encroaching sun. Eyes screwed tightly and she inhaled deep, watching the static dance in the darkness. The exhalation brought a sense of peace. She was warm and cozy.

The doorbell went off, a thousand angry metal hornets in her cranium.

"Blergh," the engineering student responded to the urgency of the world around her.

Honey Lemon had survived a lot of explosions in her modest lifespan, but nearly fell off the balcony when the front door flew open and a horrible dark eyed troll woman bellowed "WHAT!?" at her from the pointblank distance of two feet from her face. The sunny smile on her face faltered into a wide eyed grimace. A bag containing a pastry and a coffee cup was thrust forward as a peace offering.

"…I can come back later?" A nervous laugh escaped her lips as she lowered to head to see Gogo's eyes. Windows to the soul, her abuela had called them. Honey Lemon always felt that her abeula knew best, and it was in her best interest to look in the window to see who was home: her best friend, or a bunny murderer.

Small hands snatched the bag and cup from Honey's hands. A sniff. Black Colombian Roast. A favorite. The small woman pressed the cup to her lips, letting the aroma peel away the layers of anger like sandblasting an onion. The withering glare in her eyes sputtered to a smolder, then a dull, emotionless stare. Pupils drifted up lazily to look at Honey. "Nah. You can stay. Thanks."

Honey smiled, any apprehension floating away like vapor. "Okay! Hiro texted me and told me you were taking care of Baymax for a bit, so I thought I'd stop by and bring you breakfast and make sure you were okay."

"Mm." Gogo's effectively nonverbal response was supplemented by a slight smile as she led her friend inside, kicking a clean path to the overstuffed yellow beanbag chair that Honey had bought her as a housewarming gift. Honey settled down into it as Gogo padded over to the wagon filled with robot parts parked next to her weight set.

"Poor Baymax – always the biggest target," Honey sighed as she produced a bag of sunflower seeds to snack on. "Still, that's a lot more left than I thought there'd be after that horrible explosion."

Gogo bit back a short laugh. "The sad part is that I've known you long enough to tell the difference between good and horrible explosions," she said as she kneeled to poke at the parts. "But you're right. Lightweight alloys, high tensile polymers, modular design for easy disassembly and replacement… Marshmallow can take a heck of a beating. Tadashi did good work." She glanced at her friend, who gave her a warm smile.

oo00oo

_10:28AM_

_Two Years Ago_

_SFIT Campus – Main Hall_

_Holy crap she was tall._

_The girl that would be Honey Lemon towered over almost everyone in the lab, especially with those platforms she wore on her feet. The stranger was talking to Tadashi, subconsciously crouching to make up the height difference. Gogo couldn't hear any words, but could see the big gestures, the animated features. She was happy. Too happy for any two people. She watched from across the room for a moment through the transparent holographic display, assessing as she manipulated the design on her screen._

_After a moment, Honey pranced away like a deer on those shoes of hers. Gogo popped her gum._

"_She's cute," piped Gogo, sauntering up as he lifted a box of plastic cubes to be fed into the lab extruders. "D'ja ask her out?"_

_Tadashi chuckled. "Saw the new girl, huh? Talk about five gallons of optimism in a two gallon jug." She matched his ambling pace, shoving her hands in her jeans pockets._

"_Seems like your type, Mr. Glass-Half-Full." Pop went the gum._

_He shifted the box under one arm to muss her hair. She scowled, batting his hand away. "Nah. Besides – too busy with my final project. She could probably use a friend, though. You know how clique-y and subdued everyone can be here, especially with pretty people."_

_A snort. "That's just what I thought this morning. 'Gee, I'd really love to play second fiddle to someone so cheerful she could cause everyone to break out into an impromptu musical number.'"_

"_Don't be so negative."_

"_I'm sorry, did we just meet?" She held out her hand for an introductory shake. Tadashi rolled his eyes and put down the box at the 3d printer intake hopper._

"_Do it as a favor to me then. This place can be tough, what with all the mean, anti-social biker chicks running around campus. Besides, you owe me for working out the airflow and resistance calcs on that bike of yours."_

"_Fine. I'm gonna hate her though." Pop._

"_That's what you said about Fred and Wasabi."_

"_I actually hate them, too. Just less than I hate the rest of the world."_

"_How about me, then?"_

_Gogo rolled her eyes, blowing a big bubble before walking away. She heard him laugh just in earshot. She popped her gum._

oo00oo

The cool glass nanofiber suspension rod under her fingers brought her out of the memory. Gogo's face softened slightly. Any words her friends used to describe the man were nothing compared to what she could read in his craftsmanship. Others felt and recalled emotions. Gogo could touch his meticulousness and efficiency in Baymax's skeletal structure, see the warmth and strength of character in the robot's design philosophy.

She sighed almost imperceptibly. Tadashi had been their best friend. It took a lot for her to admit she had a best friend. While she loved her team, there was always an impenetrable wall of anger and sarcasm against the world at large that kept getting in the way. Tadashi had been… different. With him, she never felt the urge to beat him until the stupidity stopped. He had always been so calm and deliberate, but never seemed to waste her time.

Gogo stood up. Words were dumb. Feelings were hard. The punk girl turned to face her friend, settled into the giant vinyl sun colored beanbag like a radiant Disney princess. Gogo's eyes looked mildly upset and confused; she couldn't figure out what was bothering her.

The blonde chemist leaned forward, a gentle sad smile on her delicate features. "I miss him, too."

"Mm." Gogo nodded. To others, a vague expression. To Honey, a heartfelt assent. "At least he left something behind worthwhile. Did you bring your car? I want to take bubblebutt here down to SFIT and get started."

"Thought you might! It's right outside!" Honey's words were bright again as she watched Gogo shuffle to the bathroom to clean up a bit and stuff some sundries in her day pack. It was going to be a long day of assembly and disassembly and manufacturing. Even with SFIT's best, Baymax was a precision machine.

"Wasabi around? Gonna need help calibrating stuff."

Honey tidied up by folding the seed husks in a tissue. "I think he'll be around later, yes. He's probably going to want to use an acid scrub for all those burned in grease stains on his armor." The tissue was tucked away into her cardigan pocket for proper disposal later. Truth be told, Honey had a tough time figuring out if anything in Gogo's apartment was a trash bin or a parts receptacle.

"Huh. Okay." She shook the uneasy feelings away. Time to work. Honey's face brightened instantly as she followed Gogo out the front door, already nattering away at her latest attempts at making gluten-free, dairy free pizza with Wasabi's latest batch of organic tomatoes.

oo00oo

11:16AM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

Honey had helped Gogo cart in Baymax's remains and had kept her company until Wasabi arrived to assist in machine calibration. The impeccable physics major had taken his usual time, fussing and complaining over the person that had utilized the equipment last.

"All I'm saying," Wasabi grumbled, "Is that it's not hard to set everything back to zero when you're done. You can't leave equipment pressurized, people!"

"S'funny," Gogo replied with a pop of her gum. "You always seem pressurized." Honey giggled, hiding her mouth with her hand.

Wasabi hit the reset button on the 3D printer and let out an exasperated moan. "And you! Always gotta get the last word in, don't you!?"

"Yep." Pop.

Wasabi rolled his eyes as he toweled off his hands in the lab sink. No sense in spreading germs on the machines. The sound of the sink masked Gogo's softly padding feet, so he practically jumped when he felt something warm and wet on the back of his neck.

"Thanks for the assist," Gogo said, hand drawing back from where the mashed wad of stale gum sat on Wasabi's neck. "I owe you an organic soy chai tea dairy free latte."

"Augh!"

"…Gogo," chided Honey as she strode over like an indignant forest sprite to aide an ailing bear. "Was that really necessary?" Wasabi glared at Gogo as Honey wrapped up the gum and handed Wasabi a pack of disinfectant baby wipes she kept in her purse.

The biker girl shrugged, tapping her chest with her fist before tossing off her lazy two finger salute. "Dunno. Don't care. Peace out. Got a personal health care companion to care back to health."

"She's such a jerk sometimes," Wasabi muttered, wiping the back of his neck as he left the room, Honey in tow.

"She was feeling a little melancholy this morning. I think she's just deflecting again."

"Pff. Like she has any feelings past angry and schadenfreude." Wasabi knew what he said wasn't true the moment it came out of his mouth. He was upset, but not upset enough to follow the line of thought Honey was leading him to. "Working on Baymax getting to her a little?"

"I think so," Honey sighed. "You know that Tadashi was the only person that could talk to her for more than ten minutes without stepping on a land mine." Honey's fingers fiddled with the buttons on her cardigan. They looked like tiny bees and provided a convenient distraction as the bubbly girl's thoughts cooled to more serious matters.

Wasabi smirked. "You mean aside from you? Shouldn't you be in a forest, singing at chipmunks or something?"

The tall girl giggled. "It's still hit and miss for me, you know. Or did you forget that time she dumped on me when I spazzed out over the Sev'ral Timez reunion tour coming to town?"

"Girl you got me ackin' so cray cray!" Wasabi responded, imitating the stilted motions of a choreographed boy band dance.

"CRAY CRAY!" Honey Lemon's Creggy G.'s impression was spot on.

"You tell me that you won't be my baby!"

They both began to laugh, trailing off to an easy quiet moment before Wasabi piped up.

"Maybe I've been hanging out with Fred too much, but don't they look like clones to you?"

"Don't you start with me too, Wasabi," Honey Lemon said, narrowing her eyes, a smile playing on her lips.

Gogo rolled her eyes and closed the glass door behind them. She cracked her knuckles. Time to go to work.

oo00oo

2:41PM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

Holographic projections of Baymax's specs lined the walls, showing exactly where replacement parts were needed. Gogo's hair was pulled back in what could only generously be called a ponytail, her baggy SFIT t-shirt hanging off shoulder, revealing a yellow sports bra underneath. With her bike shorts and sneakers, she looked more like she should be headed to or from a gym or a run rather than puttering around a lab.

Wasabi and Honey had made a futile attempt at getting her to go to lunch, and Gogo was definitely regretting turning them down. Her stomach gurgled angrily at her, and her mood was worsening as it always did when she got hungry. Progress was slow. Most of the time, Baymax's damage could be easily repaired because of how modular he was. A new vinyl envelope and an actuator solved 80% of his problems. The warhead that had blown the loveable pillow man apart had been specially built for anti-tank use. What hadn't been vaporized had been peppered with metallic shrapnel and gotten caught in any number of bushings, pistons and actuators.

She sighed, tossing herself in a rolling chair. Poring over specifications had caused a wave of nostalgia. The long nights working in the lab doing aerodynamics calculations for her racing bike, hearing Tadashi talk to himself like a loon while he worked on Baymax's early designs.

oo00oo

_1:42AM_

_A year ago._

_San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 7_

_She stood in the doorway, a steaming cup of chai tea in her hand. Tadashi's numerous drawings covered the wall. Tacked to corkboard – old fashioned. Tadashi was very old school. She sipped from her cup slowly, as inscrutable as ever. _

"_What'cha doin', Grampa?"_

_Tadashi turned to look at her, a tired smile accented by raccoon eyes. "Just my thesis project. It needs to be perfect."_

_Her single 'heh' was muffled by the cup. "I can relate." Her footsteps were soft. Late night work made noise louder. Hurt the brain. Tadashi's head looked like it hurt enough as it was. _

_The woman glanced over the designs on the wall. She recalled Tadashi's concerns. "Healthcare Companion", meant it should be a utility robot –durable, sturdy with a pleasing aesthetic design. She pulled one of the drawings from the corkboard and made a face. "Is this supposed to be a nurse or Megatron?"_

_Tadashi groaned, slumping in his seat. "I know, I know. I blame gender bias and big media. I think "robot", and see Mazinger Z…"_

"_Nerd."_

"_Voltron."_

"_Neeeerd."_

"_Gundam."_

"_Nuh-herd."_

_Tadashi frowned and tossed a sketchpad at Gogo, who nabbed it out of the air without a moment's thought. Quick hands pulled the pencil from behind her ear as she flipped to an empty page._

"_Gotta think like a woman, Tadashi. What's comforting? Soft. Round. Egg-shaped." She presented him with a hasty scribble of an oval with little black dot eyes and fat hands and feet._

"_Looks like Domo-Kun has been hitting the dessert tray a little hard." An impish smirk played on his features as he looked up at her nigh-emotionless face. He could tell that she wanted to laugh from the spark in her eye. He smiled wider._

_She snorted, shoving the base of his rolling chair. Tadashi rolled into his work bench, where it stopped with a bang. "Ow. Okay, okay, quit it. Thanks, tamago-onna."_

"_What's that?" Gogo's eyebrow raised as she took the gum out from the side of her cup, blowing a large bubble._

"_Egg girl." _

_The bubble popped. "Ugh. Don't let Fred hear that."_

_Tadashi grinned. She scowled._

oo00oo

5:41PM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

"Yo, Tomago!"

Fred's lazy voice shook her from her reverie. She looked over at her work. Progress was still slow. Baymax's parts had been meticulously spread out over the workroom floor in a way that would do Wasabi proud. Gogo had scoured, cleaned, and inspected every bolt and seam for debris. The problem with precision machinery was that it was just that – precision. Excessive blemishing or damage would quickly become a problem. The machining process for the non-metallic materials had already begun. The fabricators hummed perfectly thanks to Wasabi's calibrations. It was only a matter of time before she could get started on reassembly of the skeleton.

She was fantastically tired for some reason, and a shooting pain behind her left eye wasn't helping her cope with Fred's cheerful face as he bounded into the room like Tigger.

"Hey, they said that you were staying late to work on Baymax, so I thought I'd come by and see how you were doing… and check it: Instant ramen!" Two hands thrust themselves into a ratty green backpack, producing two foam cups containing dried noodles.

"More money than God and I get freeze dried noodles. Be still my beating heart." Surprise immediately shifted to sarcasm. Gogo instantly felt irritated with herself for having said it, but Fred was just that kind of person.

"Nothing but the best, right?" Fred called over his shoulder as he slouched over to the lab sink and filled the cups with tap water.

A deep inhalation, then a long sigh as she forced the rising urge to be alone with her thoughts away to at least attempt social interaction with Fred. No matter what verbal abuse she hurled at the man, he always seemed to shrug it off. Besides, he had brought food, and the audible gargling sounds her body was making overrode any sense of irritation she was feeling as the salty broth smell from the lab microwave wafted through the hall.

"Thanks," her voice was quiet as he handed her a cup before tucking into his own, sitting down backwards on a chair.

"No prob. So how's it going? Gonna give Baymax some kinda super upgrade? Wheels like yours? Or dude… how about a ramjet?" Fred's earnest face almost made Gogo want to smack him again, but her desire to eat and curiosity won out.

"First off, no. Baymax… Baymax just needs to stay the way he is. Second, how the heck do you know what a ramjet is? And if you say it's like a flying bumper car, I will make you eat that funky-smelling hat."

The grubby backpack produced yet another surprise in the form of a battered old Unpopular Mechanics magazine. "Ramjets – The Future of Aircraft. June 1989." Gogo's eyes slowly locked with Fred's, whose enthusiastic noodle slurping became slowly less enthusiastic.

"It was just an idea, man!"

Gogo squeezed her eyes shut. "Fred… okay, look. This isn't your fault, but I'm stupid tired and I'm in a terrible mood. I haven't been able to get anything done. Thanks for the food. I mean it… but I really need some quiet time."

He had expected a punch, or a shove, or some kind of verbal attack. "Why are you so stupid?" was a common question. This was a little less expected. Fear turned to concern as he put his food aside. "Okay, yeah. No worries. Call if you need anything though."

"Yeah," Gogo said, managing a very weak smile. "Thanks, Fred."

He patted her shoulder as he got up to leave. "I'd say to not work too late, but let's face it, that's not gonna happen. So I brought you this." The bag of surprises produced one last thing: a memory foam pillow. Gogo took it, squeezing it with her hands out of instinct only to watch the depressions slowly return to their original shape.

"You can keep it. Heathcliff said we got too many for the rumpus room."

"Keep this up and I might upgrade you from ignoramus to just stupidly annoying," Gogo replied, shaking her head. Fred grinned.

"Take care, Eggo."

Gogo's plastic spoon clattered off the door as Fred ran away.

oo00oo

8:22PM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

Putting together the pieces was Gogo's favorite part about her choice in majors. There was a sensation of supreme satisfaction when everything fit into a seamless mechanism and worked perfectly. She was not getting that feeling.

"Hiro you little turd! You deviated from the design!" An ultralight aluminum femur flew across the room into a garbage can. This Baymax didn't match the specs from the original, so some of the parts didn't fit. Hiro had forgotten to give her the updated calculations. This of course drove Gogo completely crackers.

Parts were off by half a millimeter. Gears didn't mesh, wires wouldn't reach and couplings failed to couple. It was miserable. Baymax's half-completed skeletal form hung from the robotics scaffolding. The mushroom-like head was attached to a spinal column, with his right arm hanging loosely at one side. His round, corndog-shaped fingers dangled limply making him look like a seriously creepy alien corpse.

She lay her head on Fred's pillow, staring at Baymax. It had only been one day, but not having the giant inflatable nursemaid around had been kind of strange. The last time she had seen him in this assembly state was when Hiro was remaking him from scratch. She groaned at the thought, closing her eyes. The brothers were a lot alike, but Tadashi had years of experience on the kid.

oo00oo

_3:46PM_

_A Year and a Half Ago_

_San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 7_

"_Looks like it's coming along," Gogo walked around the half-finished robot hanging from the ceiling in Lab 7 as Tadashi inspected the cold-weld on Baymax's left forearm. "I saw you running the leg and gyro tests last week, though. Is it supposed to walk like a baby with a full diaper?"_

"_You're the one that suggested the egg design, Tomago," the young man replied absently, that infuriatingly confident half smile crossing his face. "When's the last time you saw anything egg-shaped run a triathalon?" Gogo beaned him on the back of the head with a hex nut. "Ow!"_

"_Stop calling me that."_

"_Baymax online. Please state the nature of the medical emergency." The eyes of the alien skeleton bolted to the ceiling harness lit up, immediately scanning the area for injuries. _

"_Your creator is a putz," Gogo responded to the robot out of reflex._

"'_Putz' is not a medical condition listed in my database."_

"_It should be." _

"_Stop helping, Gogo. You're not allowed to help anymore." She shoved him playfully away from the robot in retaliation. "Oh, it's on now."_

_Tadashi swooped in and grabbed under her arms in a practiced motion. Gogo swallowed a yelp of surprise and reacted instantly. Instead of shaking her upside down like his little brother, Tadashi got an elbow ground into his low back. The pair collapsed into a heap on the floor, the surprisingly heavy Gogo kneeling on the small of his back._

"_You appear to have sustained minor contusions," Baymax announced, swinging on the harness to get a better look at the scene. "You also appear to be encumbered by an unidentified female assailant. Shall I call for assistance?"_

"_I don't like being picked up," Gogo's flat tone brokered no discussion._

"_Noted. No thanks, Baymax. I'm good."_

_She helped him up from the floor. His hands were surprisingly calloused – probably from all the knuckle-busting from tuning his robots and tooling in the garage. "Sorry. Reflex."_

"_Yeah… so did you stop by here just to make fun of my robot and beat me up, or did you need something?" _

_He gave her another smile. How did he manage to stay so easygoing? She shook her head. "Just thought I'd see what you were up to before meeting up with Doug."_

"_Doug Ramsey?" Tadashi looked a little surprised._

"_Yeah. Don't you have a programming class with him?"_

"_He's got a knack for it, I'll admit," a pause. Tadashi had an uncertain look on his face. Weird. Tadashi was almost always confident. "He's kind of a nerd's nerd. Surprised you'd go out with him."_

"_Eh," she shrugged. "Nothing else to do. He's not ugly and he's paying." A pause, and a wicked half smile crossed her face. "Why? You jealous?" She nudged him with her elbow._

"_Cut it out! No, just… try not to break him. We all actually kinda like him. Besides, he's helping me run diagnostics on Baymax's database/execution protocols. He's no good to me dead. No disintegrations."_

"_Mmm. Well, no promises, Lord Vader," Gogo replied, almost laughing as she stepped out the door, voices of Tadashi and Baymax fading in the distance._

"_She is quite rude."_

"_That she is, Baymax."_

_She smiled. The gum popped._

oo00oo

1:42AM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

She woke up with a start. Nodding off had not been part of the plan. Gogo stretched her back. The pillow had been comfortable, the slouching not so much. Her back popped, the sound like tiny firecrackers going off. She blew her nose on a takeout napkin tossed it at a trash can and sat back to assess the situation.

Eyes stared blearily at Baymax, fingers drumming on the desk. "Where would that munchkin put the new specs?"

Her fingers tapped something plastic. A glance down. A familiar happy face sticker stared back up from the background of green plastic. Hiro had given her Baymax's memory card.

Maybe Baymax could help. It was worth a shot. She was fairly sure all of his electronic components were fully functional – most of the issue had been mechanical damage. It only took a moment or two to provide an external power source, pop open his access hatch and load the card.

The motors to inflate the missing vinyl envelope kicked to life, and Baymax's camera irises shuttered open and closed. "..oooo." A pause.

"Hello. I am Baymax. Your personal healthcare companion. Good evening Gogo. I appear to be," a pause, "at 35% physical capacity. I am also at… 90% processing capacity."

"That'll happen when you eat an anti-tank rocket. Baymax, do you have all of your current physical specs? I mean the ones that match all of Hiro's work on you."

"Yes."

"Great," Gogo rubbed her eyes. Finally, something was going right. "Can you upload them to a local server so I can finish repairing you?"

"Of course, Gogo. Please place a physical terminal within reach of my right hand."

The tired speedster looked at the heavy casing of the computer under the desk and its 5 meter distance from the closest point that the harness could swing, and groaned. "Ugh. I wish Tadashi was here."

Her eyes opened wide as she realized what she said. She wasn't one to live in the past. Gogo wasn't like her friends. She wasn't emotional – it came with the territory. When you lived at full speed, you come to accept loss as part of life. Tadashi's death had hit her as hard as it could possibly have, but life was for the living. Gogo had to keep going – for herself, for her friends. It was that driving force that helped her friends move along, to give Hiro that sense of purpose and the will to form the team. Everyone relied on her in the field. Looking back, second guessing… she didn't. She couldn't. Her heart quickened as she immediately began to beat down her feelings.

A futile effort when Baymax made his announcement: "Tadashi is here."

The color drained from Gogo's face, and she stared at Baymax. "W-what?"

Baymax's chest projector worked just fine as it beamed the young man's smiling countenance onto the far wall. "Tracking test," Tadashi's voice emitted from Baymax's speakers. "Follow the pen buddy." Target boxes tracked the pen as he moved it across Baymax's field of vision.

She groaned. "Baymax, you jerk." Her head fell to the pillow again, staring at the animated image of her old lab neighbor. Gogo felt numb looking at the images, cracking a smile only when Tadashi dropped the pen after a loud explosion went off in the background. She could hear Honey Lemon's tinny voice in the background shouting 'Sorry!'.

"You were always such a dork. I don't even know why I talked to you. Always gave you a hard time, too. Your creator was a pushover, Baymax," Gogo announced, amusement in her voice. "The loser always let me walk all over him for some reason." She kneeled down under the workstation to see what it would take to pull the heavy computer closer to Baymax.

"Tadashi was quite fond of you."

The table nearly turned over as Gogo smashed her head into the workstation. "Ow! What!?"

"You appear to have suffered a minor contusion to the top of your head. On a scale of…"

"Shut up about that. What did you say about Tadashi?"

"Tadashi was quite fond of you."

"Explain." Gogo stood up, folding her arms. Her eyes were hard, lips set into a straight line. Gogo's gaze would have wilted all but the stoutest of people. Baymax, however, was immune to such things.

"I observed your interactions on no less than eighty five separate occasions during my development. While data was limited and inconclusive during early testing, I have solid records for at least sixty four interactions. During this time, I noted an increase in Tadashi's heart rate and norepinephrine levels in more than ninety percent of your interactions, and an increase of dopamine levels and dilated pupils in eighty three percent of your interactions."

She blinked. "Wait, what? No, no. We were friends," Gogo's voice was rushed, strained. "Best friends."

"During those interactions, I noted similar reactions from you. Out of the sixty four recorded interactions, you exhibited increased heartrate and neurotransmitter levels in eighty eight percent of your interactions. I also noted that nearly half of your interactions contained physical contact, with fifty two percent of the contact being initiated by you."

She took a breath, licking her lips. Confused. Nervous for some reason. "He never said anything." It was a weak statement, tinged with anger. She walked over to the image of Tadashi frozen on the wall. "You said you had sixty four recorded interactions? Let me see them."

"You appear to be angry. This conversation appears to have upset your emotional state. You have requested potentially confidential information. I am afraid I…"

"Baymax. Let. Me. See. Them." Her voice could solidify hydrogen.

"Will watching these interactions improve your emotional state?"

"I don't know," she responded honestly, the fatigue creeping into her voice. "I'm... I'm tired, Baymax. I have allergies, and I haven't slept. I thought working on you would be a good distraction, but I've been… I don't know. Feeling stuff lately. I'm not super awesome at feelings."

"Tadashi also had difficulty expressing his feelings."

A snort. "Please. He was practically Asian Mr. Rogers."

The scene on the wall changed. Gogo saw herself walk into the lab in the image, and her brow furrowed.

oo00oo

_6:09PM_

_A Year and a Half Ago_

_San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6_

_The equations on the screen were long and convoluted, but Tadashi seemed composed and diligent, scribbling on a notepad as he worked them out. He heard the door open, saw the reflection of the person entering, but didn't respond immediately. Baymax – just a head and a CPU, sat on his desk._

"_Tad."_

(Medical readouts overlaid on the image demonstrated a slightly faster heart rate as UNIDENTFIED FEMALE approached.)

_Tadashi tied his sweater around his neck, and turned, giving his best Locust Valley Lockjaw. "Eyeeees?"_

_Gogo's eyes sparked with amusement, an actual laugh threatening to escape her lips as she walked towards him, slapping a folder against his chest. "Results from that physics exam. Nice job, ace."_

"_Was there ever any doubt?"_

"_Watch it. Still haven't decided if I hate you yet," she gave him a half smile. "Nice volleyball." She poked at the head with a finger._

"_That volleyball is my senior project," Tadashi said, grabbing her finger gently and pushing it away. _

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE's heart rate increased by 25%. Thermal scans showed a mild increase in temperature. Dilated pupils.)

"_Could you not give it irreparable brain damage?" He turned back to the screen to keep working on the equations._

"_Given who's making him? I'd say 'too late'."_

"_I am Baymax, your fully automated health care provider," the head stated flatly. Gogo's face washed to neutral._

"_Might wanna do something about your buddy's catchphrase. Sounds like he wants to abduct me and stick me with a probe." She leaned on one of his shoulders, peering over at the equations. _

"_Sounds like your last five dates."_

"_Big talk from Captain Celibacy." Her gum popped next to his ear, her breath blowing past his cheek._

(Tadashi's pupils dilated. Temperature increase.)

"_Okay, so again, did you come here to do anything other than to give me test results and make fun of my social life?"_

"_Nah. That was pretty much it. I'd hang out here longer, but I'm going out tonight."_

"_Who is it this time? Madison? Rex?" _

(Activation of Tadashi's brain's dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and right-ventral pre-frontal cortex, causing slight pain and muscle tightening in the chest.)

"_Terry. He just got a new bike."_

(Further tightening in Tadashi's chest. Eye tracking suggests high levels of interest in Tadashi's response from UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE. Digital readout demonstrates prolonged delay in verbal response.)

"_Huh. Well, have fun. Don't stay out too late – final for applied chem is on Wednesday."_

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE's brain activity registering as pain and muscle tightening in the chest.)

"_Okay, well, see you around old man."_

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE no longer in range. Tadashi's chest pain lessened, but persistent.)

_She left. Tadashi sighed softly._

"_You are in pain."_

"_What?" Baymax's eyes stared, unblinking at Tadashi._

"_You are in pain."_

"_No, I'm not," Tadashi said tiredly. He rubbed his temples. Sounded like it was time to recalibrate the sensor matrix._

"_I am sensing pain and tightness in the chest continuing from your interaction with UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE."_

(Cheeks flushed. Low neurotransmitter levels.)

_Tadashi bowed his head, running his fingers through his hair. "Geez. I guess I made your sensors too strong if you can see that."_

_"Are my readings inaccurate?" The prototype voice was harsh, grating, but still had the undertone of the gentle care that Baymax would come to be known for._

_He sighed again. "No. Yes. No. I don't know, Baymax. Remind me to make a full counseling package for you at some point." Tadashi's eyes turned towards the door where Gogo had left. "I guess I do have kind of a thing for her," he said conversationally, heavy lidded eyes and relaxed posture attempting to compensate anxiety and jealousy._

(Neurotransmitter levels rising. Conclusion: Discussion of uncomfortable events or emotions can be an effective treatment strategy.)

_"I like Gogo a lot. She's smart, driven, funny..." _

(Testosterone levels rising.)

_"...and she __looks amazing._ _Her face, her eyes... Geez those eyes. And all that biking's one a lot of good things for the rest of her. Gotta love a girl with a tight, toned..."_

_Baymax blinked audibly, the cameras whirring. Tadashi composed himself, clearing his throat._

_He laughed, turning back to his work. "Wouldn't work out, though. She's moving all the time – impatient, rude… she'd get bored with me in fifteen minutes. She calls me "old man" for a reason. Besides, there's an army of guys lined up to go out with her. What we have is pretty special, Baymax. Means a lot to have someone you can just be yourself with. Saying anything could seriously mess that up, you know?"_

_A sad smile._

_"Its better we just stay friends."_

(Further chest tightening.)

_He reached over to find the off switch on the back of Baymax's alpha head. "It's not like she'd ever feel the same way anyhow," Tadashi said softly, the smile fading from his features as Baymax's camera went dark._

oo00oo

1:47AM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

It was late. That's why her eyes hurt. The allergies were making her eyes water, too.

So Tadashi had a little thing for her once upon a time. Clearly he had made the conscious decision to just be friends. Like Tadashi had said - she liked to move a lot. Dating was fun, exciting. Tadashi had been boring.

Comfortable. Safe. Warm.

Her heart was pounding. She swallowed, her throat raspy. Maybe she was getting sick. She folded her arms in front of her, face hard as the tears welling in her eyes trickled down her face. Gogo covered her mouth, almost afraid to speak.

"That's an isolated incident," she said hoarsely, taking a deep breath to keep her shuddering heart under control, "He said himself that he gave up." Her tone was almost challenging. Conflict was easy to control. Gogo stoked the fires of her temper to burn away the pain and uncertainty as her eyes flashed defiance at Baymax.

There was a long pause between Gogo's declaration and Baymax's response. "It was not."

"Prove it."

Another long pause.

"Are you cer..."

"Prove it." The voice was sharp enough to carve ice.

Baymax complied.

oo00oo

_12:22PM_

_A Little Over a Year Ago_

_San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 7_

_"Gogo."_

_"Tad."_

_"I need your help."_

_"I'm skeptical. This is my skeptical voice."_

_"Ha ha," Tadashi snarked, "I'll just need you for like fifteen minutes."_

_The woman stood from her workstation and stretched. She grimaced as her back popped and cracked in protest. "I'm getting a standing desk," she announced to nobody in particular as Tadashi put his hands on her shoulders. Muscles tensed involuntarily as he guided her to his section of the lab. She could feel the heat and strength of his hands through her SFIT tee. His long-legged pace forcing her to half trot or stumble._

_"Okay, so I had to strip Baymax down a little in order to fit the design aesthetic we talked about, but now I have to make do with minimal tools," Tadashi said as he held the door open, pushing her into a circle on the floor._

_"Not liking the circle, Tad." Arms folded. Gum popped. _

_"You'll like it in a minute, trust me." Tadashi slipped his hands into telemetric gloves that left his fingers bare. "Okay Baymax. Keep your sensors on and get ready to receive data."_

_The head had evolved into a head with a spinal cord and two long, gorilla-like arms. A plastic barrel covered his chest and spinal column - a placeholder structure to keep him protected. As Tadashi raised his hands, so did Baymax. _

_Gogo felt his hands on her neck, placing a gentle but firm pressure on her overly-tight trapezius muscles. She couldn't suppress the soft, pleased groan that escaped her lips. His hands worked their way across her neck and shoulder blades to the small of her back. "Tadashi, when I become rich and famous, I am totally hiring you as my houseboy." There was no helping the press back into his hands like a cat being stroked as her heavy-lidded eyes closed._

_"Acupressure," was the response, his face locked in concentration at getting the pressure points right. "I figure if he can't have a full suite of medical tools, this was the next best thing."_

_"I am detecting a heightened level of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin in Ms. Tomago. I am also detecting similar..."_

_"Thank you, Baymax!" Tadashi said, face flushing slightly as he saw Fred and Wasabi out of the corner of his eye grinning and giving him a thumbs up. Tadashi grimaced, waving a hand to shoo them away. Baymax copied the gesture._

_"Mmm?" Gogo was only vaguely paying attention, enjoying the feel of the knots in her tired shoulders being worked away. "Whatever. Circle's my new favorite thing. I might actually decide I don't hate you." Lids lifted slightly as she gazed at him lazily from the corner of her eye._

_ "Yeah?" Tadashi's heart skipped a beat._

_"Mmhmmn." A shrill beep went off, and Gogo's eyes went wide as lifted her arm to look at the PDA on her wrist. "I gotta run." The warm skin under Tadashi's hands was replaced by cool air as she stepped forward. "Sorry, don't want to be late for my CAD reservation." _

_The short woman bustled out the door, shooting past Wasabi and Fred. "Murtaugh. Riggs." She nodded to the both of them before disappearing out of the lab entirely._

_"That looked cozy," Wasabi said with a smirk as he stepped in with a paper sack. "Bagel sandwich from your aunt's shop. You and the biker chick got a thing going on you wanna tell us about?"_

_ "C'mon guys. Me and Gogo? That'd be one invention nobody could get to work. Besides, isn't she going out with Terry now?"_

_"McGuiness? That was like for a whole five minutes," Fred drawled as he picked up Baymax's hand and tried to thumb wrestle it. "I'm pretty sure she's a free agent now. Doesn't take ESP to see that you're totes wanting some of that. Want me to say something, bro?"_

_Tadashi groaned. "Okay, this is gonna sound lame, but it's not like that. We're friends. That's it. Full stop."_

_"Yeah, I'm pretty sure you were smelling her hair like a creep about ten seconds ago," Wasabi said, leaning on a wall. For once, he was glad he wasn't the one being tweaked. It was actually sort of fun to see the normally calm Tadashi kind of shaken. "Seriously, what's the worse that can happen? She says no?"_

_"I'm not screwing things up with my best friend over an infatuation." He took off the gloves, laying the on the counter. His hands were still warm. "No matter how badly I want to."_

_"Okay man, but you know what they say. 'You never lose by loving. You only lose by holding back."_

_Wasabi and Tadashi stared at Fred._

_"What, I can't say smart stuff too?"_

oo00oo

1:55AM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

"Play another."

A pause.

"_Play another."_

Her chest hurt. Her breath was coming in rapid gasps. She sniffled, and wiped her nose with a napkin.

Baymax played.

oo00oo

3:58AM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

She was crying. It was an unusual sensation to her. Her throat was dry, and the tears stung badly. Her hand covered her mouth. Eyes screwed shut as she desperately tried to swallow the rising tide of emotion. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to die. She hated herself for not saying anything, hated him for not saying anything. She felt warm inside for having caught the eye of one of the sweetest people she had ever met. She felt cold – the reality that she'd never know what it was like to have been with him filling her with a bitter chill.

"I am sorry that I caused you emotional distress."

"This isn't fair."

Baymax stared at her.

"Why did every... why didn't he tell me?" Her voice cracked. She bit her lower lip. Tears kept streaming, annoying her, angering her, weakening her as she stood before Baymax.

"T-tadashi is here, right?" She placed a hand on Baymax's chest, over the expansion port that contained the memory card.

"Yes."

Gogo nodded, and smiled softly, looking at Baymax's featureless but oddly warm face.

"Tell him that… I would've gone out with him if he asked."

Baymax paused. "Based on heuristic evidence, I am sure that this information would have caused Tadashi to experience: joy."

"I wanted to."

"Based on heuristic evidence, I am sure that this information would have caused Tadashi to experience: joy."

"I thought… I thought he was adorable. I liked when we talked… when we joked around. He was the only one that seemed to get me. My heart always jumped whenever he touched my hand… ugh. I sound like a schoolgirl."

"Based on heuristic evidence, Tadashi greatly enjoyed your company and physical contact."

She smiled. A real smile. Warm, sad. Her hand clutched at Baymax's expansion port, holding tightly as she pressed her head against the projector in Baymax's chest. It was hot, almost uncomfortable. Eyes squeezed tightly again, trying to wring out the rest of the tears, but they kept coming.

"It's not fair. I would have stayed any of those times if only he had said something. It's not fair."

A pause. "You are here now."

"…yeah."

"Tadashi is here." Baymax's hand patted Gogo on the back gently.

The only thing she could do was the thing she never let herself do, but the one thing she had to do.

"I made up my mind. I hate you so much," she lied.

The tears didn't stop.


	2. Ain't Missing You At All

Note: If you're reading this without having re-read the first chapter, I'd suggest you do that. Some tweaks were made.

There'll be one more chapter in this one before I start on my next story. Unless otherwise stated, they will all occupy the same 'continuity'. Thanks for the reviews, and please enjoy! Comments, questions and suggestions are appreciated.

oooo

_10:33 PM _

_A Year Ago_

_San Fransokyo Harbor – Warehouse #9_

_Black boots struck the concrete floor. The swirl of the trench coat cut a dramatic flair for the figure before Yama. Ironically, the elaborate mask on the figure did not. Despite being a powerful man with little restraint, something about the figure placed Yama on edge. _

_Or maybe it was the other rival gangs congregating in the warehouse. Each of them had been promised huge sums of money to help this 'Yokai' with his little project. The mountainous man's piggy eyes shifted left and right. The beautiful and deadly cyber-gangster Fujita sisters were to his left, the armor clad mecha-head Banzai Bombers to his right, and the eerily silent Warriors, derisively known as the San Fransokyo Ninjas, cloistered among the building's rafters overhead._

"_As you are aware," Yokai's stentorian tones seemed to issue from the room around them rather than from the dark figure itself, "You all failed __miserably__ in obtaining the equipment necessary to build what I needed."_

"_If it wasn't for sheer serendipity, I would have no recourse at all. Luckily for you, I've located other means for achieving my goals. More importantly, I've determined the cause of my problem."_

_The rustle of… something… issued from the darkness. Suddenly, the lights gun on, shining down on a diminutive man strapped to a table. "I'm sure you are all familiar with our good friend, Mr. Sparkle, who tried to undercut me and shanghai my plan into a power play of his own."_

_Mr. Sparkle, the stunted runt of a TV show host. The man had a hidden dark side and his pudgy little fingers in every pie of the underworld. His freakish game shows and childlike demeanor gave Yama the creeps. He had approached every one of the gangs in private, offering them legitimate enterprises for money laundering and fronts for illegal business if they would swear allegiance to him rather than Yokai. To Yama's knowledge, everyone had – Yokai was powerful, but not the most stable figure. The big man's face went blank. He was animalistic and cruel, but Yama wasn't entirely stupid. The time to run was coming soon._

_Yokai's gloved hand slapped the unconscious figure, who woke with a start. He immediately started screaming and pleading, his hands working at the restraints. "Please, Yokai! I didn't mean anything by it… it's just I needed some assurance! You know we're always all about fun times! What harm was it to make sure that we were the ultimate benefactors of the side effects of your plan?!"_

"_The point is," Yokai said, his angry hiss coming from everywhere, "You overstepped your authority. This rabble answers to me, not you. But you'll be useful to me yet."_

_Another rustle. Dark shapes formed in the corner of Yama's eyes, and he could see the agitated expressions on the faces of the other gang members as an amorphous black shape rattled from nowhere, descending with an armored suit. Another with a strange helmet. Yet another with… a weird pink mascot costume? _

"_Courtesy of my friends at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology," Yokai explained as the rustling grow louder and the cloud of microbots descended on Mr. Sparkle. He immediately started to scream. The Fujita sisters laughed nervously. Yama could hear the soft whirl of the Bonzai Bomber's scout class pulsejets power up, normally silent save in large numbers. A rustle overhead. The Ninjas, enigmatic as ever, had already begun to file out quietly._

"_I have no need for any of you anymore," Yokai stated flatly, letting the jittering morass of microbots fill the lit area. _

"_Are you reneging on your deal?" Yama bellowed. "Yama will not be cheated!" As concerning as these events were, Yama couldn't contain his rage. He did not broker disrespect, even if he was caught red handed. The Fujitas rolled back slightly, allowing him to take center stage._

"_Yes," came the simple response, and a black pillar shot out of nowhere, grinding Yama to the floor. He let out a muffled shout of surprise and pain. The audible crunch of bone almost blotted out Yama's scream of pain as his arm shattered. "None of you are getting paid. In case any of you are interested in revenge, let me make it perfectly clear what will happen to you."_

_Yokai stepped back, the microbots swooping in to pull him away into the darkness. The sound of metal restraints tearing as the weird pink mascot costume stepped off of the table, wobbling, woozy. "A Kreitech military battle suit - nine million dollars. A behavior modification and transceiver unit, nine years and one point two million in grant money. One slightly used mascot suit – one hundred fifty and change."_

"_Mr. Sparkle is dead! Say hello to Professor Genki!" The mascot suit filled with TV host shrieked like a mush-mouthed banshee. _

"_Insurance against betrayal: Priceless."_

"_Here comes Super Murder Cat!" The fluffy pink paws rose up, twin machine pistols popping out of wrist holsters. The crazed cyborg immediately opened fire on the crowd, sending Bonzai Bombers into flight, Fujita sisters racing away, and Yama's gang to beat feat after the Warriors into the night air. _

_Yama followed after, his larger frame and broken arm slowing his progress considerably. He glanced behind him and immediately wished he hadn't. The nightmarish visage of the grinning cat head bore down upon them, massive green eyes gleaming like lanterns filled with burning nightmares as razor tipped paws tore through the room._

_Yama grabbed one of the heavily armored Banzai mech suited thugs who was having trouble igniting his jet engines. With a mighty heave that dislocated his shoulder, he hurled the man square at Genki before turning to run. The howling shriek of torn metal mingled with cries of terror met his ears, but the sight never met his eyes as the lumbering gangster broke into a full run. _

_Yama only paused long enough to see Yokai's dark form supported by the whirling mass of microbots sweep out into the bay as the warehouse behind him exploded with a cackling laugh._

oo00oo

7:45AM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

Gogo woke up with a start, immediately regretting it. The light from outside of the lab shone in, stabbing her eyes, forcing them shut almost immediately. She was sore, tired, and felt like garbage. The sleep had helped very little. It had been restless, the result of absolute fatigue when she slumped on the floor after running the diagnostics on the deactivated Baymax.

She felt devoid of all emotion as she looked at the red storage pack that contained her handiwork. Baymax was finished.

She could do little else from the night before but work, trying to push the image of Tadashi's face from her mind. It was a losing proposition. Each time she picked up a part or slid something back into place, memories and things she had seen and heard rushed back like crashing waves. She had cried like a pathetic baby all night, and sworn and threatened Baymax into secrecy. The robot had promised to keep it patient confidential.

Gogo was filled with self-loathing for her weakness, but didn't have the energy to continue punishing herself. She was so spent and worn from turning everything over in her head over and over. What could she have said? Why had he been so dead set on making sure they were only friends? What would life have been like if he confessed? If she had? There were no answers, just a yawning void of emptiness.

They had been friends, though. Great friends. Maybe that's not what either of them had really wanted, but it was what they had. She wouldn't devalue it based on empty wishes and daydreams. It didn't make it hurt any less, though. She let out a shuddering sigh as she wrapped her arms around herself.

A bitter laugh escaped her as she stood tiredly. "Woman up, Gogo," she said looking at the seventy five pound package on the floor. With a grunt, she hefted Baymax back into his wagon. With luck, she could get him back home before anyone else ran into her, and then crawl into bed and die.

She passed the printer, eyeing the paper within with a melancholy stare. The paper lay face down and she reached out to pick it up, crumple it, throw it into a shredder. It had been in a fit of weakness that she had asked Baymax to print the picture out. Now she wasn't so sure she wanted it. A tentative hand reached out, hesitated, but eventually turned the photo over.

The resolution was crystal clear. It was a simple picture. Both of them had been peering at his latest Baymax prototype. A big smile of satisfaction was on his face. She had lazily thrown an arm around his shoulder, making a peace sign while wearing a mischievous smirk in a feigned attempt at being "cute" for the camera. It had been an image capture test. She felt her heart ache just looking at how happy the people in the picture were and wondered for the hundredth time if that was how things could have been.

The rock and the raging river. The tortoise and the hare. The acid tongued speed demon and the dry-witted lead-foot.

She slid the photo into a folder. She couldn't bring herself to take it, and she couldn't throw it away. The folder slid into a pile of papers on her desk.

A heavy sigh racked her frame one last time as she stepped out into the early morning air. The beautiful sunshine and clear weather did nothing to quell the emptiness she felt inside as she dragged the wagon behind her.

oo00oo

11:43AM

Lucky Cat Café

The Lucky Cat Café was the de facto hangout for the team, even with Cass and Hiro on vacation. Fred had even postulated that if there were an infinite number of alternative universes out there, each one of them had a Lucky Cat Café and barring some post-apocalyptic event where the café no longer existed, some version of their team would be hanging out there. This theory had been met with varying levels of response, ranging from 'stupid' from Gogo, to 'cool' from Hiro. Wasabi (who thought the theory was silly but whatever) sat with Fred and Honey (who thought the theory was 'a nice thought') as they shared pastries and caffeinated beverages.

"So you're gonna go see your dad on his island during Spring Break?" Wasabi asked, blowing lightly on his coffee. Furi Wamu, Aunt Cass's recent hire, did a serviceable job making coffee. It was nowhere near as good as Cass's, though. She always put too much almond milk in for Wasabi's taste.

"Yeah… I'd invite you guys, but it's sort of a special father/son bonding deal," replied the easygoing English major. Of course it was killing him to not tell them of the fact that his dad was a superhero, but he knew the rules. "How about you and Gogo, Honey? Don't you two usually go on some crazy road trip?"

The blonde laughed, shaking her head, "I guess it has been two years in a row now, huh? Usually we hit a racing event – we drive up and sightsee on the way there. I don't know about this year though. I think the whole 'being on the team' thing has thrown a monkey wrench into that plan." Honey nibbled on her croissant in thought. "It would be nice, though. Last year we went through Oregon and Gogo stumbled onto an orienteering competition. We came in third. Not bad for two city kids, no?"

Wasabi chuckled. "I wish I could say that was surprising, but that girl is scary competitive – emphasis on the scary."

"Crunchy scariness on the outside, exploding with the delicious fruit flavor that is caring on the inside," Fred clarified.

Wasabi rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I guess so. Sometimes I feel like she picks on me like it's her job."

Honey mused over the rim of her teacup. "Well, I'm pretty sure she was acting out yesterday as a coping mechanism. I don't think she ever got over Tadashi's passing."

Everyone at the table grew quiet for a moment. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, so much as a pregnant one. Everyone at the table looked at one another, wanting to say something but hesitant to do so. Sensitivity or sentimentality created a block to communication that could only be breached tenderly.

Luckily, Honey Lemon was just the person to address the issue. "You… you both know that Gogo had feelings for Tadashi, right?"

Wasabi choked on his coffee, hacking as the hot liquid headed down the wrong pipe.

"Oh, Wasabi!" Honey's eyebrows knit as she rummaged in her purse to find a tissue or a handkerchief. "Are you okay?"

Fred patted him on the back as the boys traded furtive glances before they looked back at Honey Lemon. Wasabi nodded, gratefully taking the tissue offered him to wipe his mouth. "Yeah… sorry. Guess that uh, caught me off guard."

"Right, yeah. Me too, man," Fred chimed, scratching the side of his face and not making eye contact. "So like, what'd you mean?"

She laughed nervously. "It's not really my story to tell," Honey said, eyes shifting down to her half-eaten pastry before shifting back to the boys. "I mean, I shouldn't. But maybe if you guys knew what was going on…"

oo00oo

_1:21AM_

_Just Over a Year Ago_

_Honey Lemon's House_

_Honey pressed her lips together in concentration as she raised the fabric up to the light to inspect the stich. Normally she'd be working to provide pieces for her online store but tonight it was purely a hobby piece, and it was coming together nicely: a little yellow cardigan with bee buttons._

_It was a shock to her when she finally caught the time. She had been working on it for hours – ever since Gogo had left her house and gone out with that guy. What was his name again? Tommy? Teddy? She could never keep track._

_The rumble of a motorcycle engine kept her from returning back to work, and she got up from her seat in her workshop over her parent's garage to peer out her window. Gogo often crashed at their house when she was out and about. Sure enough, she saw the familiar form of a small woman parking her yellow street racer in her driveway. _

_Honey Lemon waved from the window and went to unlock the door. She sat back down as she heard the heavy cycling boots thumping up the garage stairs. The industrial engineering student opened the door before removing her helmet and unzipping her cycling leathers. "Well, that was pointless," she announced flatly, hanging her armored jacket up next to a lab coat with sunflowers embroidered on it. _

_Gogo shook her head, running her fingers through her thick hair to deal with some of her helmet hair as Honey set her project aside. "The date went badly?"_

_The biker girl snorted as she kneeled by the mini-fridge. "If you could call it that. Rex's got this whole 'never serious' thing going on," she groused, pulling out a diet soda. "You want?"_

"_No thanks. Caffeine before bedtime gives me really weird dreams," replied the blonde. "What do you mean, 'never serious' thing?"_

"_Everything's one big joke for him. The daredevil thing was hot for a while. Now I feel like he's just having kicks just to have kicks. Dude's not going anywhere or accomplishing anything." The soda can popped, and the familiar hiss of the fizz escaping accompanied Gogo's quick sip to keep the can from overflowing. _

"_So why keep seeing him?"_

"_He's got cool toys," was the matter of fact response. "His uncle or something keeps him supplied. I dunno."_

_Honey smiled, shaking her head as she turned back to her project, placing the box of buttons nearby so she could attach them by hand. "One of these days, mija, you are going to get bored with all these one note pretty boys."_

_Gogo collapsed lengthwise on the comfy old couch specifically there for the purpose of guests and naptime, kicking her boots off. She took a long pull from her soda before flashing a predatory grin. "It's San Fransokyo, Honey. There's a lot to go through before I hit the bottom of the barrel."_

_Honey laughed. There was simply no stopping Gogo once her mind was made up. One of the things that made their friendship work was that neither of them tried to change the other. "Well, speaking of silly boys, did Tadashi manage to get a hold of you today?"_

"_No. Why?"_

"_Apparently he managed to work some equations out for your fixie," Honey replied, nipping thread with her teeth. "He wanted to talk to you in person. Wanted to know if you were free tomorrow afternoon to trade notes at that little hole in the wall ramen place. Monta?"_

_Gogo hummed, pushing back into the couch to stretch. Honey looked over the rim of her glasses, surprised at the lack of immediate, snarky response. Instead, the biker crossed her legs at her ankles, her heavy lidded gaze trained on the window. A small smile played on her lips, her fingers drumming on the soda can as she stared into space._

"_So?"_

"_Hmm? So what?"_

"_What are you going to do when he asks you out?"_

_Gogo smirked, rolling her eyes. "Been hitting the telenovelas again? Or the K-Dramas? Trust me, he has no interest."_

_Cheerful, bubbly, sociable and fun. Those adjectives were usually what people thought of when they met Honey Lemon. Only her closest friends knew the truth – the girl had an intense dark streak that came out only when faced with a puzzle or challenge. Sometimes it was subtle. Something would catch her fancy and she would obsess over it for weeks if not months, deconstructing and analyzing it to death. Sometimes it was explosive, like her experiments. When her overpowering need to know the answer to 'what if?', or 'what happened?' took over, that demonic energy filled her psyche. This usually ended in what Honey liked to call 'happy disasters' and everyone just called 'Aiee!' or 'Run for your life!'._

_Honey tilted her head so that the light caused a glare over the lenses of her glasses. A wide smile crossed her features. Gogo blanched in mid sip, caught like a deer in the headlights._

"_It's funny you said it that way, that __he__ has no interest, rather than __you__ have no interest," Honey noted pointedly. "You in particular usually just make a face and say something nasty." Only a person as passionate as Honey could load her words with so much inference without actually saying what she was thinking._

_Gogo's hand clenched on her soda can, her stare still meeting Honey's._

"_How do you know he has no interest?"_

"_I just do." The response was hard, defiant. Gogo's iron gaze still met Honey's unnervingly fiery one. Cracks in the armor were starting to show – a slight motion in the biker girl's face. Honey knew one of Gogo's tells was when she started playing with her gum inside her mouth, often tucking it between teeth and cheek._

"_The fact that you know he's not interested suggests that you tried and you didn't get the response you want."_

"_This is me, Honey. I always get what I want," Gogo's boast didn't carry the usual confidence Gogo was known for. Honey could hear it in her tone – more flippant than strong._

_Honey's grin widened, eyes narrowing as she moved in like a shark for the kill. _

"_You __like__ Tadashi, don't you Gogo?"_

_Honey could see the rage, the fury dancing behind Gogo's eyes as she set her drink aside to cross her arms in front of her. Defiance froze her face in a mask of threatening anger to Honey's beaming, almost taunting grin. The two friends sat there in silence for what seemed like an eternity, a Mexican standoff that could only occur between two polar opposite personalities that happened to be good friends._

_It was Gogo that broke the gaze, casting her eyes to the floor. _

"_I knew it__."_

"_Look, even if I do, did… whatever! Tadashi doesn't see me that way. He's like… permanently stuck in big brother mode or something," Gogo spat, flustered and exasperated. Her face was slightly red. Honey thought she looked adorable, but even she wasn't silly enough to broach that. Calling her cute was not a great way to continue a conversation with Gogo._

_Sated with the response, Honey shifted back to her normal conversational tone, as if they had been talking girl talk the entire time. "So did you actually say or do anything…?"_

_Gogo seemed slightly embarrassed, shrugging slightly. "I dunno… I just… did what I always do. I've never really had a tough time getting guys to talk to me when I want. Shove 'em around a little. Give 'em a hard time and then let 'em follow." She paused, resuming her gum chewing. "I… every time I feel like there might be something there, he just… shuts off? Whatever. We're good friends – I should just be happy with that."_

"_Maybe he's a little more complicated than the usual imbécil you hang out with, no?"_

_A sigh. "Yeah, maybe. I figure he just likes girly girls." A short laugh. "I thought he was into you."_

"_Oh no. We're like oil and vinegar," Honey said with a laugh. "Shake us up and we go good with an 'everyone else' salad, but there's not a lot in common otherwise. You two, though – you're both applied science, good with your hands sorts."_

"_Mm. Maybe."_

_Honey waggled her eyebrows. "You should find out how good Tadashi is with his hands."_

_Gogo snorted, but then smiled lazily. "Well, if the neck rub he gave me just the other week was any indication…"_

"_Gogo!"_

"_You realize I will murder you in your sleep if you breathe a word of this to anyone."_

"_Yes, yes, details!"_

oo00oo

12:33PM

Lucky Cat Café

"Dude," Fred exhaled, sitting back.

"Gogo's totally going to kill you now," Wasabi stated matter of factly.

Honey gave a nervous titter, chewing on the final bite of her croissant. "So… that's pretty much where it was. Then two months later, the accident."

"Talk about your unresolved issues," Fred stated the obvious. "That's some serious star crossed stuff."

"Star cr… what did you say, Fred?" Honey's face was drenched in dread. "Don't you dare tell me…"

"Entering excessive drama territory here, people," Wasabi's voice raised an octave as he gave Fred a warning glance. "I'm getting a wee bit uncomfortable talking about the weird relationship between our… passed… friend and our angry friend."

"Who's an angry friend?"

Everyone turned to look at the blank, emotionless face of Gogo Tomago. She popped her gum and stared with her thousand yard stare right back. While she looked normal to Fred and Wasabi, Honey could see the redness in Gogo's eyes, and the slight puffiness.

Honey bit her lip.

Wasabi coughed. Fred looked very interested in a rogue chocolate chip that had escaped a muffin.

"Um," started Honey.

"What's that noise?" Wasabi asked, looking at the window as a whistling sound grew louder and louder.

The building in front of the store exploded. The deafening noise and blast of smoke, glass and debris swallowed all the noise in the world. Thankfully, the explosion went straight up and down, sparing many of the adjacent buildings. The team scrambled, ducking and moving to protect the other patrons per their regimen of training. They avoided most of the rubble blown in from the explosion, but what they saw as they looked up through the swirling dust didn't give them any hope that the worst was over.

Two green balls of flame illuminated the grinning Cheshire cat grill of Professor Genki. The portly lab-coat wearing pink cat strode through the swirling particulate matter. Twin chainsaws popped from his billowing lab coat sleeves, roaring to life.

"Professor Genki comes for you," grated the bizarre pink figure, before switching to his nauseatingly cute voice. "Murder time, fun time!"


	3. Always Something There To Remind Me

Note: Looks like this will take one more chapter for the finale and epilogue.

I've got preliminary concepts for a few more plotlines, but I'm open to suggestions (hint hint), provided they're not 'Tadashi returns!' stories. Everyone else has done one. I may pass by that way at some point – just not soon. Pretend it makes things more dramatic or something.

Besides, if you're desperate for living Tadashi, there's that other story I've written that apparently will get at least one more chapter given the number of hits by you cheeky wee monkeys.

ooooo

12:35PM

Lucky Cat Café

Honey Lemon had never thought about death at length. As a nineteen year old prodigy, full of energy and purpose, she had always figured she'd live a long, fulfilling life. There would be time for a career that would improve the world in some way, as well as love, marriage, children and grandchildren. Then, only after spending her twilight years fulfilled, could she have ever considered passing away.

In other words, she had never in her life considered the possibility that her end would be met at the hands of a chainsaw wielding lunatic in a pink cat-doctor costume.

Honey Lemon used her tall, lanky frame to shield the high school kids that had stopped in for donuts that were cowering beneath a booth. She coughed violently, attempting to expel dust from her lungs, refusing to cower before the whirling chains.

There was no time to talk. No witty one-liners. No tricks she could pull out of her sleeve. There wasn't even time to wonder how the maniac had found them. All that mattered was that she had vowed to help others. Determined hands grabbed a chair that had upended next to her, and she swung it up in a desperate gambit to deflect or block the cutting edge that howled, devouring all the noise in the world as it sought to cleave the girl in two.

Saws bit into the wood and metal with a high pitched whine. The scent of burning wood and acrid metallic smoke filled the air in the milliseconds it took the rip halfway through the chair as the world seemed to stop. Professor Genki's leering cat grin was the most ironic specter ever, filling her sight with the last thing she would ever see – a vaguely creepy pink cat head with green glasses and a Cheshire cat grin.

Then it didn't.

The world suddenly started again as Honey stood up, staring with stark incomprehension as Professor Genki just… disappeared, replaced by what looked like Fred's suit. The monster suit's claws made for fine pile drivers, smashing into the pink cat figure sending it head over tail. When had Fred found the time to slip on his suit?

Then the revelation came – he didn't. Fred emerged from the smoke and dust with goggles on his face, a determined grin on his face as he took a combat stance. He swung a fist, kicked, and thrashed at the air. The suit followed the motions with no delay, batting Genki about like a sick kitten. "Ha! Yah! How'dya like them apples? Let's go, man! You and me! Mano a mano!"

"What in the name of…" Gogo stumbled over bricks as she returned to café proper after escorting out an elderly couple. Was she hallucinating due to lack of sleep? The team had done a good job of clearing out most of the café – there was only one thing to really see, and that was the epic battle of one super-suit versus another.

"Pretty sure that means 'Mascot to Mascot' in Italian!" Whirling chainsaws were blocked by carbon-fiber claws. A jet of flame shot past Professor Genki, forcing him back.

"…I did not know he could do that," Wasabi puzzled as Gogo pulled up beside him. "Did you?"

"Hiro and I put in some upgrades!" Fred called by way of explanation. "Telepresence unit in my hat and VR in these goggles! Lets me control 'ol Zilla here remotely!"

"….Fred, is that Jeet Kune Do?" Honey finally found her voice adjusting her glasses, half hesitating between moving the kids to safety and just watching Fred hand Genki his giant mascot head by remote. Bruce Lee films weren't her favorite, but having been friends with Gogo for a few years had led her to a general appreciation of martial arts.

"Uh, yeah… been working out!" Training under his father, really. "Pretty awesome, huh? Figured that there's never a situation I can be in where the ability to be super at a moment's notice would hurt!" Fred hopped forward on one leg, popping off a snap kick, then a straight cross. 'Zilla' followed suit, connecting a clawed heel to the pink cat's chin before smashing him in the breadbasket. "More upgrades!"

The team was immediately forced to do a double take as Zilla's arm flew across the room. The thunderous report of a HK CAWS-4 'Street Sweeper' automatic shotgun filled the air as buckshot tore through the suit. Caught off guard by the appearance of heavy ordinance, the Zilla suit stumbled and was punted across the café by a big pink foot.

"Yeah," Gogo chimed in flatly, dusting herself off. "You'll have plenty of chances for more upgrades, provided you have anything left."

"Don't hit Super Murder Cat! Super Reality Pain Time for you now!"

Fred turned to his friends, tapping the side of his goggles rapidly. Gogo expected him to scream, run, yell for retreat. Much to the biker's surprise, he didn't.

"Guys! Clear out and get your gear! I'll try to hold him off as long as I can!" The telemetry system rebooted just in time for the one-armed Zilla suit to hurl itself in front of the rampaging murder cat, smacking the gun from Genki's hand only to be raked by razor claws. The ablative fireproof coating on Fred's suit tore open, revealing the metallic skeleton underneath. The suit now looked like a zombie rubber monster instead of a normal rubber monster – something Gogo was sure she'd hear about if they managed to survive the attack.

Wasabi and Honey glanced at one another, hesitating. It was Gogo's bark that brought them back to reality. "You heard the man! Beat feet!" She afforded a grim nod to Fred before breaking away herself. It was a tough decision, but they couldn't defeat Genki without their suits. If they moved fast enough, it would be a maneuver rather than a sacrifice.

Fred leapt into the Zilla suit, his real arm sticking out the side. With a live pilot, the suit was faster, stronger, but it placed him in more danger. The two mascots traded thunderous blows with one another, but Fred was powered by the confidence left in him by their hardest teammate.

"You all heard it, right? Gogo called me 'The Man'!"

Gogo shook her head as she led the remainder of the team to the parking lot. "That's right, pal," she said to nobody in particular. "You're the man."

Contrary to her tone, she meant it.

oo00oo

_12:35PM_

_A Year and a Half Ago_

_San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Applied Sciences Auxiliary Lab_

"_You have got to be kidding me." Anger flashed in Gogo's eyes as she looked over her workstation which was covered in empty food containers. Chinese food boxes mingled with sandwich wrappers and what looked like a plastic container filled with cardboard that Honey Lemon later admitted was her take out bowl of granola from the organic co-op a few blocks away. _

"_Hmm?" Tadashi looked up from the blueprints of a variable geometry wing design for a drone for a friend and turned his head to see the petite Gogo barely containing her fury. "Oh, hey Gogo," the robotics student said nonchalantly. "Trouble in paradise?" _

"_Who left all this junk here?" Tadashi could hear the edge in her voice. Time to get diplomatic._

"_That would be Fred. He brought in some food for everyone in the lab about an hour and a half ago. He said he was going to clean it all up, but he got all excited when Wasabi left to go test his focused sound system project and chased after him. Something about a brown note. I didn't want to ask. Guess he forgot to come back."_

_Gogo let out an irritated grunt, narrowing her eyes to go get a trash bag. When she came back, Tadashi was already scooping up some of the garbage and tying the trash up in the take out bags they came in. She huffed. The problem was going away, but she was still annoyed._

"_What's that guy's deal, anyway? What kind of moron voluntarily spends his entire day surrounded by things they don't comprehend?" The industrial engineering student grumbled as she started to stuff her trash bag. _

"_I hang out with you, so I guess you could ask me the same question."_

_Gogo shot him a look, and Tadashi held up his hands at chest level, giving her a disarming smile. Her response was a dismissive half-scowl before going back to cleaning. _

"_Look, Gogo. I know you think he's a pain, but Fred's alright. He just… I guess he just really likes science. He's not hurting anyone and he brought everyone food."_

"_He brought you food," Gogo spat, knowing Tadashi was right but not willing to give into his arguments. "I notice he didn't get anything for me."_

"_Steak and jalapeno bahn mi, medium rare, hold the mayo. Your favorite from Pho So One, right?" Tadashi reached under his desk, pulling out a lunchbox. "Fred brought it with everyone else's food while you went to work out. I was holding onto it for you in the thermo-seal. Should still be nice and hot."_

_Her face shifted to neutral as she opened the box, the scent of bread, beef and pickles causing her stomach to grumble. "Thanks," she mumbled, putting it down on her work station as she sat down to eat._

"_You know," Tadashi said walking over to lean on the back of her chair. "You should try to give him the benefit of the doubt sometime. He might not be able to manage a baking soda and vinegar volcano, but he definitely pays attention when you least expect it."_

_She bit into the sandwich. The flavor struck her tongue like a sledgehammer, and she scowled inwardly. It was perfect, and Tadashi was right, of course. "Whatever, dad," she mumbled with a mouthful of food. "He's still an idiot." _

_Tadashi laughed, giving her shoulder a light squeeze before he walked back to his workstation, leaving her alone. "Enjoy your sandwich, fussyface."_

_Gogo glared at Tadashi's back. She hated it when he was right._

oo00oo

12:36PM

Streets of San Fransokyo

They scrambled out into the street, headed for the public parking where Wasabi had stowed his vehicle. The sounds of complete chaos filled the air around them. It felt wrong to run, wrong to leave a teammate behind, but what could they do? Traditionally they patrolled, looking for problems to solve. It was an entirely new experience to have the problem show up to try and solve them.

Wasabi didn't even try to stop Gogo as she slid into the driver's seat, ratcheting the seat all the way up so her feet could reach the pedals. The screeching squeal of tires tore through the air as she backed up the car, practically driving across the walls of the parking garage as the compact burst into the streets. Gogo's back molars tried to grind the gum in her mouth into component molecules as her mind raced. Cold calculations were made – estimates as to how long Fred could hold out, distances, mental maps, shortcuts, suit up times.

"Any theories on how Murder Cat found us?" Wasabi asked, turning to look behind them nervously with Honey. The ruins of the café were already disappearing into the distance.

"Wild guess. He's got the same tracking tech as Baymax. That suit he's got – gotta be military grade," Gogo answered. "More important question: Where's everybody's gear?"

"Still at the lab. Honey's having the hard shell portions soak in a solution that's supposed to increase its tensile strength," Wasabi replied, looking at Honey for confirmation.

Honey gave a nervous smile. "Yeah… about that. There's the weensiest chance that your armor will soften to the consistency of rubber cement or in the worst case scenario, melt like warm Jell-O." She drew her head down like a turtle retreating into its shell, holding up her fingers a centimeter apart. "Sorry!"

"_What!?_"

"Focus! Honey, where's your stuff?"

"Home, in my workshop," Honey replied, allowing Gogo to overlay the mental math with the map in her head.

"Probably not being turned into pudding as we speak," Wasabi grumped, looking sternly at Honey Lemon.

"I am so, so sorry! I was going to tell you, but it didn't seem like a good idea when Professor Genki was trying to saw off my head!" Honey sputtered, more nervous and apologetic than upset. "Maybe we'll be lucky! Maybe I didn't make a mistake in my chemical equations!"

"Oh no, instead you needed to tell us about Gogo's personal life. That was clearly more important than telling me that you were melting my super suit like a gummy bear in the microwave!"

Honey Lemon's eyes widened like saucers as she clapped her hands over her mouth with a gasp. Wasabi immediately froze, eyes moving to look at Gogo's reflection in the rear view mirror.

Death stared back at the both of them with dark rimmed eyes.

"An insane cat robot monster is tearing the city a new orifice," Gogo stated, a chill creeping into her voice. "Fred, you guys, and I are its only hope. First we are going to save the city." She punctuated the sentence by turning a hard right, the tiny car's engine letting out a protesting whine. "Then we are going to talk about friendship confidentiality. Then, depending on what you tell me, I am going to beat the snot out of both of you with a rubber hose."

The two college students looked at one another and swallowed.

"Any questions?"

"N-no."

oo00oo

12:53PM

San Fransokyo Institute of Technology – Lab 6

Wasabi's car, only battered and dented as opposed to completely totaled compared to the last time Gogo drove anything owned by Wasabi, spun to a halt in front of the SFIT Applied Engineering building. The car let out a creak, further reflecting the overheating indicated on the thermostat. A hubcap fell off, rolled lazily across the sidewalk, and flopped over when it hit the grass.

"My insurance premiums are going to be astronomical," Wasabi wailed as they charged into the school, scrambling through hallways, around errant students and equipment before bursting in the chemical lab.

"Where's your radio?" Gogo demanded curtly. Now was not the time for excessive bawling about the future when now was at stake.

"My locker," Wasabi responded, brought back to the moment by Gogo's biting tone. He eyed her carefully as she darted towards the wall of steel lockers, descending on Wasabi's. She seemed to be doing better than expected to his eyes. Then again, handling emergencies in the moment seemed to be her clarion call.

Gogo immediately headed for Wasabi's locker which was on the bottommost rack. "Combination!" Demanded the woman, her tone as a field leader uninterested in niceties. "And don't just stand there! Go see if Wasabi's armor is goop or not!"

Information was exchanged. Gogo's hands popped the locker, couching as she reached inside and grabbed Wasabi's headset radio, pressing on the mic button as Wasabi and Honey darted towards the electroplating vats. "Fred! This is Gogo! Pick up, freakshow!"

Insults. Easy to say. Easier than showing concern. Her back jaw was sore from working the gum. The flavor had disappeared ages ago. The wad in the back of her mouth tasted more like bathroom caulking now.

Nothing but static. Didn't mean anything. Fred's suit was damaged before they left. He could have just forgotten to turn the thing on. Any number of things could have happened.

Wasabi barreled back into the room. His suit armor was glistening, but was missing parts of the gauntlet gloves and pauldrons. Gogo stood as Honey scampered in an eyeblink later, her face red with embarrassment.

"I am so, so, so…"

Gogo made a short, abrupt hissing noise to interrupt her friend. Honey's eyes instantly dropped to her feet as she shuffled nervously.

"I take it some stuff melted?" Gogo's tone was dry as her eyes flicked back and forth in thought. There had to be a way to get everything together. Fred couldn't last forever, and every minute had to count.

Wasabi grimaced. "Yeah. Plus side is that I think the chest armor's tough enough to take a heck of a beating but flexible enough for me to move easier." Wasabi paused and looked Gogo over with mild concern.

"Where's your armor?"

"Here. I was working with Hiro to install a more sensitive EM trigger for my wheels," Gogo said absently. Wasabi placed a hand on her shoulder, and her head snapped up to stare at the big man's face.

"By my count, Fred's probably got speed and reach and age. Genki's got armor and a whole lot of ordinance. If Fred keeps moving, I'd guesstimate he has about 20 more minutes before it starts catching up to him. If your suit's here, you can get back in eighteen minutes at your top flight." Gogo began nodding, listening to the words, following them with her mental map.

"I'll take Honey to her place, get her suited up. Leave your com on so we can track you. If they're not moving too much and I let Honey drive and close my eyes, I think we can turn around in a half hour." Gogo gave him a short nod, and Wasabi immediately began to move towards the door at a dead run, grabbing Honey's wrist to pull her along.

"Hurry up. We all have to live so I can beat the tar out of you both."

Honey squeaked in fear.

"We'll make it, provided I don't mess my pants!" He called out as Gogo broke towards her locker a few doors down.

Gogo's smile was cold. Not because she didn't feel confident in knowing whether Wasabi would come through. He always came through. It would be too imprecise to not.

She just hoped _she_ could make it back in time.

oo00oo

_11:02AM_

_San Fransokyo – Fisherman's Wharf_

"_I guess I just don't get the 'good enough' philosophy," Wasabi explained to the short Korean girl sandwiched between him and Tadashi as they walked along the wharf. It was just before spring break. The air was clear, crisp, and the sun had come out, warming the skin exposed by springtime attire._

_Gogo had taken to wearing cutoff shorts, trainers, a tank top and a hoodie, accessorized by a rare thing: a smile. It was a mildly sardonic one, but a smile nonetheless. Tadashi wore his usual button ups, shorts, cap and canvas sneakers, with Wasabi's v-neck t shirt, vest, shorts and sandals to round out the trio._

"_C'mon Wasabi. There'd never be any advances without 'good enough' as an option," Gogo almost chirped, energized by the lovely day. "Case in point: America. Guy gets lost at sea on borrowed money, misses his mark by an ocean and a continent, and there you have it. 'Good enough'."_

"She's got a point," Tadashi said with a lazy grin. "You could stand to loosen up a little. You could get a lot more done."

_Gogo nodded with muted amusement, playfully hitting Tadashi on the arm with the back of her hand. "You tell 'em, Tad."_

"_A lot more done incorrectly," the big man pointed out as he stopped by one of the many stalls of fish to look over potential dinners. "I get the concept of a margin of error. Just because happy mistakes exist doesn't mean you shouldn't try for perfection though." He pointed at a Chinook salmon, engaging in conversation with the fishmonger on the other side of the ice cases._

"_He's got a point," Tadashi said as he turned to Gogo. "You would probably keep your costs down if you didn't immediately fab up new wheels every time a new idea strikes your fancy. If the carbon fiber you used up this month was coal, we could probably have powered Belgium for a year."_

_She slugged his arm. _

"_Ow!"_

"_I thought you were on my side!" She popped her gum, the smirk still on her face._

"_I just think you both have valid points is all," Tadashi took of his hat, running his fingers through his hair. "We are going to be engineers, though. Precision saves lives."_

"_Listen to this man," Wasabi chimed in, folding down the opening of the paper sack containing several salmon. "He knows of which he speaks."_

"_Whatever," Gogo said, turning and waving a hand dismissively. "Experimentation leaves room for error, and final product requires perfection. Blah blah blah. But it's sunny, it's warm, and I'm pretty sure that guy's selling Super Terrific Sparkle Gum, so I'll let you have this one. Back in a sec." The girl wandered towards the candy stand, reaching for her wallet._

_Tadashi watched her walk off, unable to keep from giving an appraising look at Gogo's rear. He exhaled sharply, shaking his head in disbelief of how good her shorts made her look._

"…_speaking of perfection," Wasabi said under his breath with a knowing tone as he nudged Tadashi._

"_Knock it off," Tadashi said, pulling his cap down over his head to hide the flush on his face. "We've been over this."_

"_Seriously? How long are you gonna keep this up? Even I would have made a move by now, and non-school related social interaction terrifies me."_

"_Everything terrifies you, __Wasabi__," Gogo said, placing an accent on the physics major's nickname before blowing a yellow and purple bubble that sparkled slightly in the sunlight as she returned. The bubble popped, and she deftly brought the remains back into her mouth for further chewing with a practiced motion of tongue and lips. "What're we talking about now?" She peered at Tadashi's curiously red face._

"_About how me being right and you being wrong makes me a better person," Wasabi replied, shifting the heat off of Tadashi. Wasabi was always reliable that way._

"_Keep it up and I'm just gonna start calling you Horseradish Mush."_

"_That's disgusting. You're disgusting," Wasabi pointed out with a simper as he started walking towards the next set of food stands._

"_Don't you walk away from me, you OCD ridden load!" She tossed the wadded up gum wrapper at Wasabi with a grin as Tadashi trailed afterwards, chuckling at his friends' antics._

oo00oo

1:09PM

Streets of San Fransokyo

Speed was Gogo's friend. There was something pure about it. Nothing else mattered but motion when she was going fast. Even when there was a final destination, the speed consumed everything, required fast reflexes and automatic thought. Everything revolved around it – letting judgment lapse for even a second could be lethal. Gogo was blessed with the singular ability to pay the proper homage to speed, and still allow her mind to fall into deep thought.

Sometimes that ability was a curse more than a blessing.

Powerful legs propelled her down the sidewalk. She began to accelerate, and the world around her began to dissolve into brightly lit blurs as her wheels hit the street. Her yellow suit was bright enough to act as a warning to people in her way. For those that moved too slowly, she could dart around, over. Wheels sparked along the road, across walls, through alleyways, over AC units and across power lines.

When she was in command, organizing, tossing out orders to save lives of friends and bystanders, her mind was at one with the moment. There was something to do, things to be done. Those became her objective, her anesthetic against reality. Speed let her mind wander.

Normally, it let her thoughts work out a particularly knotty problem, or allowed her to finally feel emotions she kept in check. After all, nobody had time or ability to judge how you felt if you were moving fast enough. That was the secret to Gogo's speed – it allowed her to move outside of everyone's ability to track so that she could just _be._

Unfortunately, it worked the other way around, too. Speed stripped her soul bare, which let the pain of last night creep back into her heart.

She couldn't even look at her friends without thinking of him. She had most of her friends because of him. Tadashi showed her that he had cared for her in a lot of different ways… everything just short of confessing. She had missed every signal, every cue, all because the only thing that had ever mattered was moving fast.

Tadashi hadn't moved fast. He was methodical and careful. When he took too long, she had just moved, finding other excitement, other boys to be with. Her own addiction to speed and adrenaline had moved her past Tadashi. If only she had been a little more patient.

The sick irony of course was that the one thing Tadashi did faster than her took him away forever.

Gogo's iron will spun in her head, viciously battering at the rising tide of sorrow roiling up from her heart. No distractions. She couldn't, wouldn't be deterred from the mission. Wheels whirled along rooftops, ripping across slanted roofs, whipping around antennae and skidding across the rims of satellite dishes.

What was left of the Lucky Cat was less than a block away. She could manage it, manage the ache in her heart for a little while longer, save her friends, stop the bad guy.

"Wasabi here. Honey's suited up on schedule. Still no word from Fred?" Wasabi's voice was in her ear, bolstering her resolve, helping the terrible longing eating at her further down her throat into the pit of her stomach where her emotions belonged.

Discs turned into sliders, feet slamming into them as the highly durable yellow pads tossed up bright sparks. She kicked her foot down, popping up over the lip of the roof of a building as she leapt into a high arc. The sun glinted off her helmet as she took the hangtime to survey the destruction below.

"It's not good," Gogo responded, a succinct description of the sight below.

The murder cat stood in the debris, shrieking a war cry. Genki's lab coat was torn. Jagged scraps of faux fur were torn across the cat's chest, sparks and wires trailing out of rends in the armor from Fredzilla's monstrous claws. One of Genki's glowing eyes sputtered and flickered, the lenses cracked and crumbling.

In his large, pawlike left hand he held the unmoving form of Fred, the Zilla suit hanging off of him in tatters, as if someone was claiming Fred's body from the gullet of a decayed lizard. Razor claws were poised, ready to deliver a final blow to the boy held up by the scruff of his neck.

Gogo couldn't tell what condition Fred was in as she shifted her hips, angling the discs under her feet to control her descent. Her own self-pity and doubt were subsumed into the mission. Like a meteor, Gogo Tomago smashed into the side of Genki's leg, forcing the battle suited monster to release Fred.

Genki let out a scream like a thousand fire alarms gone bad as the wiring and struts in the leg snapped and shredded, forcing the heavily armored menace to one knee.

Her teammate crumpled to the floor like a sack of old laundry as she used the kinetic energy absorbed by her discs to bounce back. The wheels snapped back into place as she skidded along the ground, kicking up a rooster tail of dust. She straightened up as she saw Professor Genki straighten up and stare at her, a Mickey Mouse nightmare of epic proportions.

"It took me forever to get these friends," Gogo intoned, falling into a defensive position. "Do you have any idea what I'm going to do to you if you force me to make new ones?"

"Murder! Murder! Murder!" Howled the high, squeaking voice of the tattered cat machine that half ran, half limped towards her, meaty paws outstretched.

"…something like that," Gogo muttered under her breath, sticking her gum onto the side of her helmet.

She rocketed towards him, arm shields in front of her like a battering ram. If Gogo's boiling anger and frustration had anything to say, only one of them would be walking away from today.


	4. With Or Without You

Note: The Grand Finale!

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I liked writing it. I've really liked the input from the readers. It makes me feel good to know people enjoyed the plotline and dialogue. The next plot is scheduled for a few weeks out, but it may come earlier. I'll be working a few comedy chapters out in Take On Me before returning to this continuity. For all you fans of the cut content from BH6, the next adventure is for you!

To the person that noticed the Batman Beyond reference, I'm glad you found that. The entire work is filled with nods and references to other things. Feel free to point 'em out!

Special thanks to kerouthestrange for helping to plot out the next adventure!

ooooo

1:27PM

Streets of San Fransokyo

The force of the impact alone felt like it almost shattered her teeth. Twin shields crashed into Genki's chest as Gogo realized for the first time exactly what she was dealing with. As nimbly as the cat had jumped around earlier, it was a shock to see precisely how heavy he was. Even at full speed, she barely managed to knock him into a stumble even with his tattered leg.

She bounced back, wheels scraping across the ground as she fell into a crouch, her lips set in a defiant frown. Gogo had to keep moving. Although armored with shock absorbent padding and light Kevlar, she had seen some of the cybernetic cat's weaponry. Heavy caliber guns, bombs and explosives would make short work of her if she strayed too far. If she got too close, razor sharp claws and electric shocks would put her down. She wasn't armored like Fred, so it would have to be fast, decisive strikes.

Genki toddled forward, almost drunkenly as he tried to fight around a ruptured leg. Sparks flew from the armored suit, giving it a panicked look. The noises emitting from the cyborg were far from fearful, however. A mix of crazed laughter, pre-recorded catchphrases centered around Murdertime being Funtime, and the staccato burst of a machine pistol he pulled from what appeared to be nowhere filled the air.

Gogo swept upward, tearing across the side of a ruined building to force Genki to shoot into the sky. It wouldn't eliminate the risk to others entirely, but it would draw his fire from a place bullets wouldn't ricochet as badly. More importantly, it would pull the beast away from Fred's unmoving body. Gogo gave herself half a second to hope her teammate was okay before she felt the impact of the stray bullet knocking her left shoulder back.

The yellow armor took the hit. Force from the impact radiated through her body as if she had just been kicked by a mule. Eyes went wide as her body reflexively tensed and then consciously relaxed as she tried to regain control. Full adjustment was impossible, however. The female engineer's descent from the wall was a hard one and she half landed, half smashed into a pile of rubble.

Rough impact was murder on the knees, which had buckled, causing her to land hard on a hip. Her left pauldron was probably down for the count and rips and tears along the seams of her armor were starting to show. Gogo grimaced as she staggered to her feet, keeping low lest the murder cat lop it off.

She could hear his approach, the whirling of motors and the hiss of emptying hydraulics coupled with erratic thumps. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Gogo was starting to hate the high pitched whine of Genki's voice.

A rock skittered. Genki snapped around, opening fire with his guns. Bullets blasted at brick and shattered plastic, ripping apart a small compact car. Gogo's lips quirked into a half smile. She couldn't believe the old 'tossed rock' trick actually worked.

Now it was time to do some real damage.

Twin discs flew from behind cover, the yellow blurs striking Genki hard in sequence. The first smashed into the back of the murder cat's damaged knee, causing a complete blowout of hydraulic fluid and circuitry. The second crashed into the cat's head, knocking him over to collapse in a heap. The discs bounced back, pulled back to her wrists by the draw of the magnets in her gauntlets.

"Bullseye."

Emotion fueled already strained muscles, aching from her jaunt across town as she moved forward, whirling around the wreckage on the street in front of the Lucky Cat rubble that had become their combat arena. Still, she was able to take the moment to speed forward towards the downed murder cat. Gogo was there as the shambling figure tried to lurch up. The girl let loose a series of vicious kicks to the armored form.

Her boots and wheels bashed into Genki over and over again as the unrelenting tide of confusion and frustration flowed through her. She didn't make a sound as her kicks knocked the heavy form about like a wet sandbag. Genki rolled over, receiving heavy blows to the steel-plated head. Rends and gashes in the cat's face started to appear as the arms flailed about almost comically.

Gogo's arms didn't make her a powerhouse. Her legs, however, were another story. It was time to end this. She swooped around on her wheels. Her circles became faster, tighter as she sought to build up enough speed for another high speed aerial drop that would break the cat's arms if done right, effectively robbing the maniac of his ability to fight. Wheels sparked as she gave a short hop, banking off the side of a destroyed car, leaping into a high arc.

"Game over," she muttered under her breath.

Professor Genki's arm rose with an unhinged cackle. The cat's paw glowed a bright blue before opening. A wild, uncontrolled electrical burst ripped forth from the appendage, sparkling and shattering the air with a thunderous pop. The electrical shockwave boiled up through the air, catching her full force in mid drop. Gogo's body contorted, racked with the mind-numbing pain of an area-effect Taser burst. Like a marionette with its strings cut, her high speed descent turned into a dead fall.

Her suit absorbed most of the impact as she landed on her back, her helmet bouncing hard against the pavement. Her back was probably one big bruise. Pulled and strained muscles along her shoulders and neck. Her right shoulder in particular was probably dislocated if not broken. Yokai had been powerful, but he hadn't been as tenacious or psychotic.

A strained cough racked her lungs as all the air was compressed out of them, and she let out a gasping breath. Arms and legs shuddered and spasmed as she heard the shriek of Genki's claws on the pavement. Gogo's heart pounded wildly as she tried to regain control of her body. The noise grew louder and louder.

The flickering green cat eyes and hideous, Cheshire cat grin loomed large over her, the jagged tears and rips showing the skull-like combat helmet underneath the mascot's head like a demon from a fever dream born in a disturbed teenager's imagination. A jagged claw shone overhead, eclipsing the sun.

oo00oo

_4:45PM_

_One Year Ago_

_SFIT Gym_

"_And that's how you disarm an attacker," Gogo said matter-of-factly. The "attacker", also known as "Fred", lay face down on the practice mat in the middle of the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology's gym. Gogo was crouched over his prone body, locking his arm in a visibly painful fashion. A plastic spoon sat a few feet away, the deadly weapon having escaped a life of drudgery as a pudding cup utensil._

_Once a month, the Korean girl volunteered for a women's self-defense class, teaching the basics to SFIT students and concerned housewives that were concerned about wandering the streets of San Fransokyo after dusk. She wasn't quite sure how she ended up teaching a class. She vaguely recalled something about Honey Lemon volunteering with Fred at a bake sale for a local charity event eventually coalescing to a free class and seminar without Gogo's actual knowledge, but what were friends for?_

_Besides, Tadashi threw free coffee and snacks at the Lucky Cat to sweeten the deal. If anything, it had kept her from strangling her more charitable friends for volunteering her for an hour of standing around whining housewives and weaklings._

"_Can I get up now?" Fred gasped, mouth unpleasantly full of floor mat. Gogo's knee between his shoulder blades felt like someone was trying to drive a stake through his heart the hard way. She blinked, then stood up. Fred scrambled away, pushing out the door in a panic lest Gogo thrash him a second time._

_The laconic woman placed her hands on her bike shorts clad hips, popping her gum as she surveyed the people seated in a semi-circle around her. "And that's about all she wrote. Any questions?"_

"_Yeah," came a voice from the back of the room. "That might work for spoons, but what if the attacker comes at you with a pointed stick?"_

_Gogo's gaze moved from the group to the tall figure framed in the doorway. Her hand instinctively went to straighten out her short ponytail, her face expressionless as Tadashi gave her a teasing grin. He was here to pick her up after the class- it was part of the deal._

"_Pointed stick, have we?" Gogo asked, falling into a loose stance. "'Kay. Show me what you got, Hamada."_

_The man laughed, shrugging off his jacket and hanging it on the door handle. "Okay, but go easy on me." She snorted, raising an eyebrow._

_He approached deliberately. Gogo's brow furrowed ever so slightly as he closed the distance smoothly with a smile on his face. Too close. She jabbed, a fast movement meant to disorient so she could catch his arm, swing him over her hip. Eyes flew open as he caught the wrist, pulling her towards him before sweeping his other arm under her to snatch her into a fireman's carry._

"_Put. Me. Down." Not a plea or a demand, but a straight command. Tadashi grinned, feeling her struggle. She was strong – Gogo's core was solid, but he had leverage and was causing severe disorientation by putting her into an airplane spin. It was something he did with her brother, although Gogo was considerably heavier and stronger._

"_One last lesson," Gogo announced, jackknifing her body to toss Tadashi off balance. With a startled "whoa", the man lost his balance. Gogo jerked straight, releasing from his grasp to land in a crouch as he fell with a yelp and a thud. The women around them clapped and laughed as Tadashi lay there, the world spinning around him. "Don't be afraid to fight dirty."_

_With a short hop, the woman was on him, knees firmly planted on his biceps as she sat on his chest. "I told you – don't like being picked up," she said, a tight smile on her face to Tadashi. She leaned forward, face expressionless as she popped a bubble mere inches from his. "Got it now?"_

"_Okay, okay. No more trying to pick you up," Tadashi said, the three faces in front of him finally coalescing into one. The crowd started to disperse and she sat back up still locking Tadashi in the pin, a smug look crossing her face. _

"_I win," she said, her voice taking on a singsong tone._

"_Yeah, yeah. Just remember one thing."_

"_Hm?"_

_Tadashi twisted his body hard, dislodging her with a sudden motion as he rolled her onto her back, pinning her with his arms and legs. She drew a short, sharp intake of breath too fast to even be a gasp. He smiled a sly grin as he leaned forward, brown eyes filled with that innocent playfulness that always caught her breath. Her heart started to pound – probably because of the adrenaline. "You're not the only one that can fight dirty."_

_Gogo batted the offered hand as he got up, instead snatching the hat off of his head, putting it on her own as she wordlessly stalked towards the door. She pulled the hat over her face to hide the furious blush on her cheeks as she heard Tadashi's amused laugh behind her._

oo00oo

1:32PM

Streets of San Fransokyo

Carbon steel razors descended towards her face. Judging from the damage they had done to Fred's suit, her helmet wouldn't be able to keep for long. She raised an arm, but too little, too late. The tips of the powerful paws smashed into the plexiglass shield and her helmet spider-webbed viciously, the plastic and ceramic composites cracking as the impact sounded like an exploding kettledrum in her head.

Blindly, Gogo slammed her right fist into the ground, arming her shield for rebound mode. The impact on her fist to the ground sent the disc flashing upward, and she let loose a scream of excruciating pain as her damaged shoulder exploded into fresh peals of agony. The horrible clanging noise followed by a mangled squawk managed to find its way through the high pitched ringing in her ears as she felt Genki reeling away. Gogo rolled to one side, pushing herself back up. Her entire body was numb, tingling, and she had a copper taste in her mouth. Her shaking left hand tore away at her helmet, pulling it free as her disheveled hair fell over her face. Wearily, she looked to her side where Genki stood.

Genki wobbled there, screeching, pawing at the disc that had lodged itself in a weak point in the metal right between the murder cat's eyes. The electromagnetic field it emitted was playing hob with the helmet sensors, rendering the beast blind. Gogo smiled in spite of herself. She had done a number on him. The monster was worn down to the skeleton beneath. The leg she had damaged had completely failed, the mangled limb making his unseemly weight untenable.

Gogo staggered to a knee, and realized that her wheels no longer functioned. The massive EMP burst triggered by Genki had deactivated most of her equipment. But for the grace of some higher power, that last wrist shield had been left active after the burst. Her breathing quickened as she forced herself up. Even disabled, Genki was not something she wanted to trifle with now that she was about as armed as a plucky college student in a broken super-suit.

Her pace was something between a stagger and a limp as she moved away. Adrenaline kept her going, ignoring the bruises, twisted ankle, cuts, scrapes and dislocated arm. Her lungs burned with each breath. There was a sharp clang, and Gogo looked behind. Genki had battered the disc loose from his face, and was giving chase.

The good news was that the electromagnetic weapon to the head appeared to have blown out most of Genki's mobility and armament. Cold comfort, given that the exact same thing had happened to her armor's systems in the process. The problem was that at the end of the day, Genki could still crush steel with his functioning paw, and she couldn't open a Coke can with the amount of energy left in her. Still, his progress was less than stunning as he shambled after her like a zombie. At least his vocalizer was broken – no more shrieking insanity from the murder cat.

Stumbling away for her life was not the time to be thinking about the past, but with death breathing down her neck, her mind's eye saw no better time than the present. The past few days had been emotionally exhausting for her, and she still didn't know how she should feel; grateful for the fact that she had been friends with a truly kind and caring person, or empty for missing out on the chance to have been in love with someone that truly understood her.

Above all else, she missed him. She knew that, had always known that, but never let her admit it to herself. The scrape of metal behind her forced her to move faster, but the effort made her clumsier. She let out a grunt as her weak leg caught on debris, and she crashed down onto her left shoulder next to a parked car. The scraping moved closer, and Gogo rolled to her back, watching the figure approach.

Her body ached, she had no energy left. She was alone and afraid. Not afraid of being alone, and not of dying, but afraid that she was going to die having always been alone and having nobody else to blame for it but herself. Gogo closed her eyes, remembering, forcing herself to relive the things Baymax had shown her.

She heard Tadashi's voice, his laugh, and their long talks at night over coffee and figures. She could smell the scent of solder and cold pizza floating in the air late at night as they worked back to back in comforting silence on different projects. The rare smiles she shared only with him, the laughing and shouting at their B-Movie nights with the rest of the gang. She felt his hand on hers; he had always found a way to touch her fingers when handing her a tool or a drink. The longing looks they gave one another when the other wasn't paying attention. The way his brown eyes looked into hers; both of them hoping, wishing, begging behind the heavy emotional walls they had built to protect themselves from the world that the other would say something, anything to light the fire both of them desperately wanted.

Best friends, lovers, it didn't matter. Gogo had loved him, and Tadashi had loved her, even if they never said it, never could admit it because of who they were and the circumstances around them. Her eyes fluttered open. That would be enough. Whatever it was that they had, it was more than life allowed most people to have.

Genki stood before her, wobbling. The sparks shooting from his body had grown to full blown flames crackling off of his side. The one functioning hand reached forward as the lights in his right eye finally sputtered out due to the massive dent in his face. "Gonna kill you now," came a voice somewhere inside the machine, raspy, small, but filled with dripping hatred. "It's gonna hurt."

Gogo's dry, cracked lips split into a chilling smile right back, stopping Genki dead in his tracks for a split second. "You can't do anything to hurt me that'll top what I've done to myself… but you're welcome to try."

"…g-gonna kill you!"

Gogo closed her eyes. She was tired.

Then Genki exploded.

More accurately, Baymax's mighty fists came down, smashing into the body of the tattered cyborg, shearing off armor plating and mechanical arms, revealing the shriveled arms of Mr. Sparkle within. The healthcare provider's massive hand grabbed Genki's head, lifting him up and body slamming the pathetic creature to the ground. "My apologies, Professor Genki, but you have caused egregious bodily harm to several individuals that include my friends. Please stand down, or I will be forced to incapacitate you for an extended period of time."

The only response was a weak groan.

Gogo stared at the mighty red robot before her, and looked around, craning her head weakly. "Baymax? How… Where… where's Wasabi and Honey?"

"Assisting with damage control and cleanup," Baymax replied, scanning Gogo. "I reached full charge twenty minutes ago, at which time I placed myself on active standby. I was contacted via radio, and assessed your condition on approach. I made the suggestion of splitting up to lend combat assistance due to my flight speed." A pause. "Flying makes me a better health care companion."

"Yeah," Gogo said with a small smile. "It does. Is Fred okay?"

"Fred suffered a concussion and a broken arm. A medical transport has been secured. Preliminary scans indicate that you have also sustained a concussion. In addition, you appear to have sustained: multiple abrasions and contusions along your arms, back, head, shoulders, thighs, and calves. You have two broken ribs. Your left ankle has suffered a moderate sprain. Your right shoulder is dislocated with minor damage to…"

"Okay, that's enough, Baymax," Gogo interrupted with a sharp hiss of breath as she tried to stand. Everything hurt. Even her teeth. Baymax trotted forward, scooping her up into massive ceramic and plastic arms.

She grimaced. "I hate being picked up."

"I am aware."

Gogo closed her eyes again, letting out a soft sigh. Tadashi was here.

oo00oo

11:23 AM

San Fransokyo General Hospital

The only thing worse than hospital beds were hospitals and being sick. Gogo hated being injured. For someone that needed the occasional adrenaline rush to get her through the day, being bed ridden, covered in bandages, braces, and casts, they might as well have tortured her and called it a day. Still, it beat the alternative. The hospital staff had allowed Baymax to stay with his 'patient', provided he didn't wear his battle armor in the building. The pillowy robot had kept a silent vigil for most of the evening.

Her eyes fluttered open to face the wall clock on the opposite side of the hospital room. 11:23AM in soft white against a black screen. Her entire body felt like someone had run it over with a monster truck, then backed up to make sure that he didn't miss a spot. Gogo slowly turned her head to see Baymax standing nearby, close enough to appear concerned, far away enough to give her space. Her lips quirked up into a weak smile. Tadashi had definitely done his homework.

"Good morning, Gogo," the robot said in his even tone. "I hope you are feeling better. The doctors have informed me that your prognosis is: excellent. You have responded well to treatment due to your underlying excellent physical health."

"How long was I out?"

"Approximately forty two hours."

Gogo made a face. "Wow. Okay then. Totally wasn't expecting that number." Gogo looked into the oddly expressive camera eyes of the machine. "Is everyone else okay?"

"Yes," responded Baymax. "Fred is currently five rooms down and is almost ready to be discharged from hospital care. Hiro, Wasabi, and Honey Lemon are in the lobby to see if you are accepting visitors today."

Gogo's eyes drifted from the two black dots to stare out the window, nodding more to herself than the robot. "Yeah. Let 'em in."

She lost herself in thought as she waited, listening to the strange 'zip-zop' noise of Baymax toddling himself out of the room to retrieve her guests. She felt normal, which in itself was odd. The past two days (that she could remember being conscious in) had been filled with a lot of tension. She felt at peace, but a little empty as if a part of her had simply ceased to be. Coming to grips with something she had held inside for so long was much different than her usual tactic of stomping it down into her gut. Gogo wasn't sure if it was better or worse.

"Gogo! Oh man, I heard about what happened the second I got home," Hiro blurted, rushing over. "They told me you practically beat Professor Genki to a standstill. That is… terrible, but really, really awesome."

Introspection would have to wait. The tired woman turned to look at the bright but worried face of Hiro by her bedside, only to see Wasabi and Honey Lemon shuffle in after looking quiet, apologetic, but most of all utterly relieved that Gogo was still functioning and relatively healthy.

"Yeah, well… Fred helped," Gogo said, reaching out to muss up Hiro's hair with her left hand. "Where is that doofus anyway?"

"One doofus, present and accounted for," Fred called, pushing into the room, easing in. He was dressed in a set of dinosaur PJs, his arm in a cast, his head in the ubiquitous cap that sat like a sad black jellyfish on his head. "So I heard I missed all the action. Lame."

"If by 'action' you mean 'watching Gogo get her can kicked by an insane cat monster robot', than yeah, lame," the woman said, shaking her head. "That thing… what was he?"

"Turns out he was Mr. Sparkle, that creepy host of 'Super Terrific Happy Fun Hour'," Wasabi said, folding his arms. "Police told us that they had been looking for the guy for a while. Apparently he was mostly using that weird game show of his as a means of trafficking in illegal goods. Looks like when your show consists of beating people with halibut while running through giant rubber tubes, people don't look too close to the stuff you're bringing in and out of port."

"How the heck does a guy like that get his hands on military hardware?" Gogo asked, brow furrowing. Everyone traded glances before looking at Hiro.

The child prodigy laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Um, well. We're about to find out. I had Baymax… borrow some information from Genki's onboard battle computer."

"Hiro assured me that investigating Professor Genki further would increase his neurotransmitter levels, and increase the overall well-being of the greater San Fransokyo metropolitan area," Baymax chimed in, raising a chubby index finger in the way only Baymax could do.

"Can't argue with that, I guess," Gogo said, shaking her head with a soft chuckle.

"Gogo, thanks for taking charge, and… we're sorry," Honey said, stepping closer to the bed. "I'm sorry. I…uh, I shared some personal things you told me in confidence. I was really worried about you, but I don't think that's much of an excuse." The chemistry student's face was forlorn, as if she had done something utterly unforgiveable. She took Gogo's hand, her face pleading for forgiveness.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Wasabi said, his normally worried face shifting to actual worry. "We all respect you and your privacy. We all care about you."

"Seriously," Fred added. "I mean, it's pretty clear you care about us. We don't get to return the favor a lot."

The speedster sighed. "It's okay," she said quietly. "I guess I should be grateful I have friends that care enough to mess around with my personal life."

The room grew quiet. Hiro looked around, confused. "Uh, did I miss something?"

Gogo smiled sadly. "No. I did."

oo00oo

3:23PM

San Fransokyo – Golden Gate Cemetary

As the saying goes, time heals all wounds. Gogo would say that some wounds healed better than others. Cuts sealed, bruises faded and bones knit back together, but the emptiness inside her never left. That missing piece was still gone, but life continued.

Weeks went by. Wasabi got straight As on his midterms. Honey finally found a proper chocolate flavoring substitute for her diabetic brownies. Hiro spent his time between decompiling and decrypting Professor Genki's data core and working on his latest project – databots. Small helper drones that would follow their owner like personal PDAs and concierges. Fred was still Fred despite all odds.

She found herself in front of the shrine that bore Tadashi's image three weeks after she was discharged. It was after school, her messenger route taking her near the gravesite where the Hamada family had a small plot reserved. The ultralight bike slid into the sling on her back as she quietly stepped up the narrow stairs. She didn't know why, especially now. While she had been to the funeral, she had never come to the shrine.

Today, with the sun bright and the birds singing, it seemed right. Tadashi loved days like this. It felt unnatural to not be rushing through it, charging towards the artificial heat of the night instead of basking in the sun's glow. There was a small figure at the top of the steps, giving her a moment's pause.

"…I wasn't there, but everyone held up pretty good," Hiro said, lighting the incense as he chattered away. "He was a tough guy. Almost got his core cracked. We'll get whoever's behind this, Big Bro. I know you'd probably already have a bead on him, but we'll make sure everyone's safe soon enough."

"This a private conversation, or can anyone join?"

Hiro looked up, smiling his toothy grin at Gogo who re-shouldered the bike as she approached. "Hey Gogo. Didn't hear you come up… or ever expect to see you here. Look who's here, Tadashi!"

Gogo never understood the concept of talking to a dead person like they were there. It was weird and awkward, but with Hiro around it felt more awkward not to play along. "Yo," she issued, raising a hand in a mock Baymax greeting, rotating her arm in his quirky way.

"Yeah, I know. It's kinda silly, but it makes me feel better," Hiro said, shuffling his feet as Gogo walked forward, running her fingertips along Tadashi's name written in kanji along the stone. "Don't worry; I haven't lost my mind yet."

A half-smile crossed the woman's face as she peered at Hiro from the corner of her eye. "Sometimes _you_ sound like Tadashi," she teased before looking at the photo of the handsome young man on the shrine.

Hiro laughed. "I guess."

"I was in love with your brother, you know."

"Well, we all… say what now?" Hiro stared at Gogo, her eyes betraying that she was anywhere but there as she stared in the distance.

"I loved him. He went away before I could tell him… so… I guess I came here to finally tell him. For real," Gogo said, her voice strong, but still barely a whisper. "Love you, stupid. Miss you, too. I hope you really felt the same way."

Hiro stared at her, unsure of what to say. She gave him a real smile, warm and gentle. "You know how to talk to him better than I do. I don't even know if he's listening. If he didn't hear me, could you make sure he knows?"

"Y-yeah. Of course."

Gogo sniffed, wiping a tear from her eye. "Allergies," she said, voice strained as her the sound of her shoes padding down the stairs disappearing in the distance was the only thing that convinced Hiro she had actually been there.

Gogo smiled. It was a beautiful day, and she only had one more run. She could take her time.

oo00oo

EPILOGUE

9:32PM

Hamada Residence

Hiro returned home to sit down at his computer to check on the progress of the information Baymax had retrieved from Professor Genki. Gogo had made it a very odd day. The idea that Gogo, someone who didn't even seem to have human emotions, had been in love with his brother? It freaked him out a little. A lot, actually.

It wasn't surprising, really. Gogo was pretty, tough, snarky. Seemed like his brother's type. Still, his brother had been an idol, really - someone to look up to. Gogo was frankly terrifying to him. The idea that a cool, calculated customer like her had been soft on his brother made him all the more impressive in Hiro's eyes.

Hiro shook his head with a wistful smile as he tapped at the screen. He felt bad for the both of them.

A list of folders popped up, and Hiro perused them. Telemetry data, power regulation, targets and mission parameters. The prodigy stopped over that section, squinting as he tapped the icon. The material inside immediately burst into furious activity, spreading dossiers, information and detailed profiles across the screen.

Hiro's head jerked back in surprise as he began reading the information in front of him, sorting through with his hand. "What in the…?" The directives written in what he had dubbed the "brainwashing" file – seek and destroy certain targets. But why? Maybe the answers were in the targets themselves. Deft hands tapped and sorted through the dossiers. A veritable who's who of the San Fransokyo underworld danced across the screen.

A familiar face finally popped up, a large DECEASED written across the lumpy, gumdrop shaped head of Yama. The big man had been a big noise in the San Fransokyo underworld. Hiro clicked the tabs in the file, reading rapidly, hands shaking slightly. The date of death for the big man was listed as one week ago.

Genki had just been a pawn – a means to eliminate possible problems. He had been given one directive: destabilize any opposition to 'the Phantom' who was, based on the images inside the file, Callaghan's old alter ego 'Yokai'. The dossiers were a hit list, overridden only by the threat that his team had raised.

Hiro's brain kicked into high gear as he called up the organizational charts. With Yama gone…

"Chaos," Hiro muttered, running a projection analysis. "Yama's gone. There's nothing to hold them all together. The Yakuza, Warriors, Fujitas, and Bombers; they're going to turn this town inside out for control of the city."

A map was called up, dividing the city into the gang territories, marking them with colors. "Guys," he said, looking at the group photo of the team on his desk, "We've got our work cut out for us."


End file.
